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The tom shells might be thin, but the cross-layering of layers makes them stable

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If this kit looks familiar, it may be that you’ve seen it alongside American session great Jim Keltner. It’s a DW Collector’s kit, but with a couple of retro features and a special graphics finish called, not unreasonably, Rally Stripe.

Build

Jim’s kit is a standard four-piece in classic big band sizes – 24"x14" bass drum, 13"x9" and 16"x16" toms, with a matching 14"x6" snare – perhaps recalling Jim’s jazz-oriented youth. Shells are eight-ply maple, with the snare and bass drum a bit thicker than the toms.

DW is known for its thin maple shells with reinforcing rings, but these are different. They’re called ‘VLT’, which stands for ‘Vertical Low Timbre’. Traditionally, ply shells have had the inner and outer veneer laid horizontally, but there is a school of thought that says laying the inner ply vertically aids projection and brings out more depth. Sonor has done this for decades, and recently there’s been a growing trend towards the method among other manufacturers.

Since multi-ply shells have alternating cross laminations, shells should be equally stable whichever way the plies run. The problem lies with the shell edges – it’s easier to finish along the edge of a horizontal ply than a vertical one, and we assume this is one reason why shells most often have horizontal inner/outer plies. Looking closely at the edges on this set, however, they don’t appear to suffer. There’s a very slight nap and only the very smallest of blemishes when you run your finger around them.

Bearing edges are cut at 30 degrees (of fall-off), like Gretsch shells, and are very slightly rounded over. The inner shell finish is splendid. The tom shells seem almost precariously thin.

DW’s Kevin Morris went to the trouble of finding the exact spec, and apparently each single ply of maple is 0.0278" thick. By our reckoning, that makes the eight-ply lay-up less then a quarter-inch in old money. But by using lots of very thin cross-laminated layers you can have a thin shell that is still stable – the ideal scenario.

DW offers a great choice of finishes which increase in price as they get more fancy. Rally Stripe, a lacquered graphics finish, is at the top. The stripes are applied over the attractive quilted maple veneer, and it seems a pity to cover up so much in black. Still, once the whole kit’s set up the effect is dashing.

And DW offers loads of stunning alternatives, many of them less expensive. The retro big band-sized bass drum is complemented by the bass drum mount cymbal arm and ‘banana’ rail tom mount. Both these items were deemed obsolete by the end of the 1970s, but DW’s resurrected designs are considerably stronger than the originals were back in the day.