dR Drums Mappa Mahogany 14 x 6.5 Snare Drum

dR Drums is a fairly new British drum company based around the Manchester area in northern England. It was started in 2012 in a garage by drummer Danny Rees. They make handmade snares and drum kits with the intention of using only the best hardware available.

About it’s products, the company says – “The vision for dRdrums UK is to build snare drums and drum kits that not only sound awesome but look incredible”.

With that in mind, onto the drum itself…

The 14×6.5 shell is a ply construction made of mahogany with an outer ply of mappa burr, which is finished in high gloss polyester lacquer.

The hardware on the drum consisted of:

A Trick GS007 strainer and butt plate

Sakae snare wires

Slingerland style hoops (which have a rounded top edge)

10x 88mm tube lugs

It also came with Evans heads.

In terms of visuals, the drum does look good. It all seemed to be finished very nicely and the inside particularly reminded me of an old Ludwig mahogany snare I have. Except without 50 years of ageing added to it.

I am a bit of a snare drum snob. I’ve probably said that before.

Because of my admitted snobbery, there are a few things I enjoy seeing when something new comes my way. It makes the experience that much nicer. These are things like a good strainer or good heads and while these might sound fairly simple, not all drums are created equal, even the most expensive ones. This drum had all of those things, which meant I was already in a good place when it came to play it.

In playing around with the drum, I preferred it at a more mid-range tensioning between the two tensions in the video so there was a small amount of ring but not too much. It seemed well placed there to me, not to mention that I could feel each hit in my stomach. Just a little bit, but I could definitely feel the drum in that way.

Although I had actually come across this drum a while before I had it to review, this was my time playing it.

When tuned down, the drum was – expectedly – big and ringy. When tightened up, it was more articulate but also more dry too, giving a more pronounced sound.

All in all, it seems to me that dR Drums is meeting its goal.

More info at www.drdrumsuk.com