On a day off in Frankfurt I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Sonor Drum factory. Joe Libretti (my tech) and I had been in touch with Thomas Barth, artist relations manager for Sonor, who had set up picking us up a bringing us out to the factory. Joe and I had started the day at Starbucks for a coffee where Thomas picked us up to head out to the factory. You can imagine for me this is like bringing a kid to the ultimate toy store. It was about a 2 hour ride, I think Thomas would agree that all the way up and back Joe was quite the conversationalist. I have made a short video called Trip To Sonor
Just before we arrived Thomas suggested we stop for a bite, where we met up with David, the product manager. After lunch went over to the factory where we started our tour. Thomas and David explained every step of the way of how Sonor builds a drum set. We started in the room where they keep all the wood for educational instruments.
From there they brought us through the room where they have the exotic laminates for the drums as well as where they actually make their own shells. It's amazing to see how they take all the thin plys of wood and glue them together and put them in a heated machine that curves them into a perfect drum shell. After taking the shells out of these machines they cut the bearing edge of the drum and also drill the holes for the hardware. All they machines are so precise it is scary.
After that the drum shell is ready to be painted. There are machines that they place the shells on while painting which rotate until dry. It is unbelievable how not one shell has not even a waiver in its paint or gloss. After the shell dries they bring it into a room where they assemble the hardware to the drum.
In this room they also assemble their drum pedals, where one person assembles every pedal that is made. They have a really cool pedal, the Giant Step that not only hits when you press down on the front but when your heel comes back down it hits like a double pedal. They also have Giant Step single and double pedals. From here the drums go to a room where before they are packed they are tuned by hand. Then they're packed up and sent to a huge warehouse.We also stopped by the room where they computer design and engineer every piece Sonor makes, from drum keys to drum pedals. I could not believe what goes into just designing a drum key.
The thing that blows me away is that every step of the way, Sonor never ever cuts corners on craftmanship or quality. They only do things for one reason, to be the best.
After this we headed over to a building where they have a Sonor Museum which we put on video. You have to see this, they had cool things, like the first double pedal, to Nico McBrain's (from Iron Maiden) first drum set.
After this they brought us to the part of the factory where they have one of every drum set and educational instruments, where we played for hours.
I can't thank all of you at Sonor enough for this day at the factory, but even more for what you do every day.
Check out more photos on Sonor.de and the picture pages of my website
