The Beat Goes On

Tommy Lee, Sheila E., and Mick Fleetwood have more in common than their ability to make a person’s heart trip then stutter, or to inspire a soul-deep head nod by playing an ancient musical instrument. The famed drummers are part of a long list of artists who depend on an Oxnard-based company for their instrument of choice.

A leader in high-end drum, pedal, and hardware development, Drum Workshop, Inc. has been in business for nearly forty years. The venture started out as a small teaching studio that offered private lessons and monthly workshops, and from there evolved to selling sticks, seats, books, and drums to help subsidize expenses. And since DW was run by actual drummers, this naturally led to brainstorming about how to improve the quality of drum products—and the subsequent production of innovative, superior quality items unlike anything the industry had seen.

“I envisioned it being a boutique company,” said Don Lombardi, the company’s founder. “I didn’t think it would grow this big. It’s not that we are the largest company in terms of volume dollar sales, because we only make high-end drums, but we do have a lion’s share of the market as far as artist following.”

These 1/36”-thick Exotic veneers will be adhered to maple or birch shells using a heat-pressure method. Shells will then be sanded, lacquered, and buffed to an elegant finish.

DW incorporates a number of manufacturing techniques that have helped them create a unique value proposition—one that has led world-class artists to line up for their kits. They have their own woodshop in Oxnard where they manufacture the majority of their high-end drums, allowing for consistency in development and quality assurance. “Just about every other boutique custom drum company buys their shells already made, so all they're really doing is finish and assembly,” said Chris Lombardi, Don’s son and the company’s second-generation president and CEO. “We build ours from the ground up, so we can really tailor a kit to the needs of each drummer, both sonically and visually.”

Their key strength resides in their method of building each drum kit together as a “family,” and doing what is called “timbre matching.” John Good, the company’s vice president (known around the factory as “the wood whisperer”), listens to each drum shell’s note and records it before the product is sent down the line. “As I learned about each drum’s timbre, or tonal range where the drum sounds its best,” explained Good, “I became extremely interested in trying to control the timbre of the shell, and in doing so improve the balance of the entire kit.”

DW’s marketing director, Scott Donnell, puts it in layman’s terms: “We are the only company that listens to the sound of a drum and says, 'Okay, this drum wants to be tuned to a certain pitch.’” The end result is an organically “tuned” drum kit that is ready to be played right out of the box.

A wide variety of FinishPly laminates includes Twisted Black Oyster, Twisted Yellow Satin, and Ultra White Oyster.

Donnell agrees with Don Lombardi when he says that making drums isn’t a high-tech venture. But to an outsider, it sure looks complex. Over the whine of sanding machines and electric saws, Donnell shows me how it’s done. Stops on the tour include a wood shop where sheets of more than thirty types of wood veneers are stacked nearly to the ceiling alongside a plywood press and cylindrical shell presses. The smells of maple and birch, the primary woods used for making the shells, crowd the air. In the next room, the production team sands the drums until their surfaces feel like velvet. A couple of rooms down, drums hang on posts to dry after being lacquered, painted, buffed, and/or wet sanded, depending on the future owner’s aesthetic taste. And because the music industry is equal parts image and sound, the design of the kits is paramount.

This is where the airbrush artist everyone calls Louie takes the stage. He tells me he is “passionate about painting anything.” Drummers for Aerosmith, Journey, and 50 Cent have all sat down with Louie to work on the visual identity of their drum kits. He has an extensive library of airbrush designs he’s created: Q-balls, flaming eagles, tribal bands, camouflage kits with faux bullet holes, doves intertwined with roses. “Drum manufacturing is absolutely an art,” said Chris Lombardi. “It's a very specific skill, and it's also highly creative. We've done some things that are literally in museums today.”

Other rooms in the ninety-five-thousand-square-foot facility, which includes a warehouse across the street, hold monstrous WWII-era machinery that spits out metal parts; a showroom full of shiny drum sets; a full-service video and audio recording studio for Don Lombardi’s newest pet project, the educational website and social network DrumChannel.com; and drumming prodigy Terry Bozzio’s monster kit, constructed using diatonic and chromatically tuned drums. “Terry is the resident genius,” said Donnell. “Then you’ve got Don, who is the hardware guy, and John Good is the ‘wood whisperer.’ It’s a good combo.”

In addition to ensuring that the drums sound and look good, DW does its part to protect the environment. In 2002, the company began donating a percentage of each drum set sold to the American Forest Foundation as part of their “Buy a Drumset, Plant a Tree” program. "Every tree planted serves as an acknowledgement of the environmental impact that wood-related industries have on the planet," said Carrie Lombardi, Don’s daughter and the company’s intellectual properties manager / research & development. "It's our responsibility to contribute to organizations … that are committed to protecting our natural resources." DW recently went even a little greener, introducing a line of eco-friendly drums—the ECO-X Project—made from sustainable bamboo and birch.

For DW and other companies with an entrepreneurial spirit, one of the secrets to success is an ability to stay ahead of consumer needs. “We've always prided ourselves on being an innovative company,” said Chris Lombardi. “We hold patents for many of the products that drummers now take for granted. We've shown the world that an American drum company can compete on the world stage.”

Yes, DW is making harmony on a global level. But it’s nice to know that the first chords are struck right here in Ventura County.