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The grain runs vertically on the inner and outer plies.

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• Review

Richmo's one-man workforce Alan Gilby has been at it again, resulting in another new variation on his line of popular, bespoke handmade drums. This time Alan has called the drums Power Vented (PV for short), as each drum has two slots cut into its nether regions, acting as large air vents - the equivalent of the 'f' holes in a violin or the sound hole in an acoustic guitar.

Most drums have a small air vent to release air pressure when played and the idea of making the hole larger is certainly not new. So far as we're aware it dates back at least as far as Ludwig's '80s Classic Slotted Coliseum. The Coliseum had a 1" wide slot cut right around its midriff.

More recently, American indies such as Spaun and Orange County have tried similar designs. Spaun followed the Coliseum pattern while Orange County's vented snare drums have large circular holes drilled into the sides. Some while back, British inventor Marcus de Mowbray went further, producing snare drums with no shells at all - just a pair of rims joined by tube lugs - and they sounded just fine.

Alan Gilby remembers reading about Marcus de Mowbray. Then one of his customers reminded him just how much force modern drummers sometimes play with. Alan says, "Mike Hales, a great rock drummer, told me that the power inside his Richmo bass drum was so huge it blew a three inch hole in his front head."

So Alan set about experimenting. "I first built a drum in two halves and let the fittings hold it together," he says. "Then I found that if I just cut two slots in the shell instead it sounded great."

All that glitters...

Richmo has sent three PV snare drums for consideration; a 14"x4", 14"x6½" and 14"x8". They're probably the best looking Richmo drums we've ever seen, resplendently finished in superior glass glitter wraps. Each shell has two relatively narrow ¼" deep slots cut near the bottom. Each slot runs round three eighths of the shell on each side of the strainer and butt. So in total, three quarters of the shell is slotted.

The drums are all six-ply, 8mm thick and made from top grade Finnish birch. They're hand built the usual Richmo way, with the grain running vertically on the inner and outer plies. Alan says, "The wood is bent by muscle power as I reckon using heat in any form, such as microwaving or steaming, ruins the tonal qualities of the timber."

The two smaller drums have eight tube lugs while the deeper drum has 10 die-cast bridge lugs. The two larger drums are fitted with the excellent Nickel Drumworks piston lever strainer, while the 4" drum has a piccolo-style side lever strainer. Black rubber grommets and washers are used on all fittings, and each tension bolt passes through a rubber sleeve extending over the top part of the thread, so the bolt is isolated from the metal rim.