Story time! Moody Drums was launched in 2008 by Jim Moody. As an experienced player and a contemporary furniture designer/maker, Jim wanted to test his skills and have a crack at building his dream kits. He built a number of thin stave shell kits, similar in construction to Brady kits. These sold for $5500-$6000 new, which is steep but given the cost of other high level kits and the general price point of stave shells, it was really quite reasonable. With these kits, Jim Moody would work meticulously, crafting them and losing track of hours. In circa 2017, Jim packed it in and stopped building drums. It was exhausting and after a time it became monotonous. And so, this kit serves as an excellent example of why building drums is a labour of love and not a lucrative business endeavour.

In case you're not sure what a stave shell is, we'll give you a quick rundown. Almost every kit you'll hear have ply shells because they're an efficient use of materials, they're strong, and they're pretty expressive. Ultimately, they just make a lot of sense. When you move more into that boutique space though, you'll find stave drums and maybe even steam-bent drums. Instead of plies that are bent and glued together, stave shells use solid pieces of wood arranged in a circle. These pieces are joined and cut into a solid shell. It's a more natural method of building drums but it's also more costly due to more timber being used and the additional build time required.

Stave shells are superior to ply drums in that they have less glue and the wood has not been stressed by being bent, so more natural tone from the wood is present. The problem is, stave shells need to be thicker to maintain structural integrity, which saps some resonance and raises the fundamental. In this case, we have what would otherwise be impossibly thin stave shells thanks to the reinforcement rings built into the shells themselves. The rack tom is 6mm and the floor toms and bass drum are 8mm. Appropriately, the outside of the 45 degree bearing edges are rounded off for a blend of attack and warmth with more shell contact. Cool huh?

We adore this kit. The Jarrah stave shells are a thing of beauty. The wood grain popped out of us after cleaning it and giving it a healthy dose of body butter which we use for wood grain finishes on guitars. If you've got it, flaunt it, right? The super thin stave shells and particular bearing edges employed give these shells an amazing amount of warmth and tone. The thick fundamental typical of stave shells makes them easy to tune as they just sing notes to you. This kit is a work of art and is the best sounding kit we've heard in an extremely long time.

Manufacturer: Moody Drums
Made: Melbourne, Australia 2007-2017
Sizes: 10x7 | 12x8 | 16x15 | 22x17
Shell Material(s): Western Australian Jarrah 6/8mm stave shells
Shell Pack Contents:

• 12 x 8 Rack Tom
• 14 x 14 Floor Tom
• 16 x 16 Floor Tom
• 22 x 16 Bass Drum

Current Setup: (Batter/Reso)

• 12" Remo Emperor Vintage Coated / 12" Evans G1 Clear
• 14" Remo Emperor Coated / 14" Evans G1 Clear
• 16" Remo Emperor Coated / 16" Evans G1 Clear
• 22" Remo Emperor Coated / 22" black weathered custom graphic resonant bass drum head with kickport

Additional Notes: Used, but well looked after. The shells have a few scratches and other minor marks here and there. The bass drum has a few decent scratches on the shell. The lugs and hoops are in good order with few marks. The rack tom mount (arm not included) has some residue on it. The kit was tuned for jazz and we recommend committing to the thick sound it does so well. The bass drum would benefit from a different batter head. Overall: very good condition (8/10)