American Drum Manufacturing Company
Encyclopedia
The American Drum Manufacturing Company is a family-owned timpani
manufacturer based in Denver, Colorado
. Former Denver Symphony Orchestra
timpanist Walter Light
, who built a custom set of drums for himself, founded the company in 1950 when his colleagues began asking him to build timpani for them.
The company offers four lines of instruments:
The company also builds cases and covers for their drums and reconditions old timpani.
Since every drum is custom-built, the buyer may choose from different bowl shapes with different timbral
properties and make any desired modifications to the frames of the drums. For example, Europe
an and North America
n timpanists set their drums up in different orders. The pedals have to be on the opposite sides of the drums in each of the setups.
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
manufacturer based in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
. Former Denver Symphony Orchestra
Denver Symphony Orchestra
The Denver Symphony Orchestra, established in 1934 and dissolved in 1989, was a professional American orchestra in Denver, Colorado. Until 1978, when the Boettcher Concert Hall was built to house the symphony orchestra, it performed in a succession of theaters, amphitheaters and auditoriums...
timpanist Walter Light
Walter Light
Walter J. Light was a timpanist, percussionist, and drummaker. At the age of 16, he was appointed to a percussion position in the Denver Symphony Orchestra, joining his father, who was the timpanist...
, who built a custom set of drums for himself, founded the company in 1950 when his colleagues began asking him to build timpani for them.
The company offers four lines of instruments:
- The Mark XIV is American Drum's top-of-the-line model
- The Mark XI is similar to the Mark XIV, but the bowls are made of lighter weight copper
- The Metropolitan Model Type B is the budget model. The bowls are made from the same copper as the Mark XI, but the Metropolitan drums have less features.
- Continental Chain Tuned is the company's line of chain timpani. They are designed to have similar timbral properties as the pedal drums.
The company also builds cases and covers for their drums and reconditions old timpani.
Since every drum is custom-built, the buyer may choose from different bowl shapes with different timbral
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
properties and make any desired modifications to the frames of the drums. For example, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n timpanists set their drums up in different orders. The pedals have to be on the opposite sides of the drums in each of the setups.