Bastl — JoKo Drums

Piece by piece to a drum.

Stave drums made of solid, local wood – built in my workshop, played on my stages.

since 2014 Solid wood, stave construction One of a kind

What is a stave drum?

No plywood – just solid wood, stave by stave.

A stave drum is made like a wine barrel: narrow strips of solid wood, glued into a ring. The grain runs vertically and unbroken through the entire shell.

With no cross-layers in the shell, the wood resonates freely – open, warm and a little different with every type of wood.

The build process

in six steps

Cutting the staves

Apple, walnut, oak: the board is ripped into strips of equal width, every edge precisely mitered.

Gluing

Glued into a ring around a template – ratchet straps hold everything in shape.

Milling the outside

In the first self-built CNC mill the shell rotates and is milled perfectly round on the outside.

Milling the inside

The second home-built mill works from the inside until the wall is 10 mm thick all around.

Rings & bearing edges

Fitting the reinforcement rings, then milling the bearing edges for the heads.

Finish & tuning

Oiling, mounting the hardware and heads – and then the first stroke.

New in the workshop

Two mills, built myself.

My latest development: two CNC mills, designed and built myself – one for the outside of the shell, one for the inside. That way every drum has the same thickness all around.

outside & inside 10 mm wall thickness DIY CNC