I've been mildly intrigued by cajon drum boxes. They show up frequently in acoustic sets, like maybe when a band is doing an impromptu version of a hit for a promo at a radio station. Brit Turner, drummer extraordinaire with Blackberry Smoke, uses one in this version of "One Horse Town"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzoVLDdHwW4 .
They are usually played down in front with the palms and fingers while the player sits on them. There is a sound hole (that can be mic'd) on the back side. Tensionable snare wires attached to the inside of the head give it a nice snare drum effect, while using the palm towards the sweet spot in the drum's center can bring out a nice base tone. Since I envisioned using this to occupy my feet while playing acoustic guitar, I chose a version of my own design to be used with a kick-drum pedal. I gain in that I get a beat from my feet, but I loose out on the tone variations made available from palming around on the head.
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| I used 3/4" Baltic (or Russian) birch plywood for the four sides,
and 1/4" Baltic birch for the head and back, with a Mapex pedal. Baltic birch is a high end, cabinet grade plywood with thin birch laminations, which
make it dense and heavy. The 3/4" has 13 (birch) lamination, as opposed to
5 or 6 (softwood filler) laminations in "regular" birch plywood. |
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| The head was mounted with (28) #10x2"stainless steel screws, and is made from 1/4" baltic birch with a 3/4" x 3/4" border of baltic birch glued completely around the inside perimeter. This provides a substantial mounting edge for the stainless screws to go through (almost 1" depth in total), before they thread into pre-drilled holes in the sides. If a 1/4" head was mounted directly to the sides without benefit of a thicker perimeter, the flush mounted bevel head wood screws would use the entire 1/4" thickness of the plywood, thus weakening the integrity of the mechanical bond between the sides and head. It is important to set the screws flush to the surface so as not to create a hazard for the palm. | | | | |
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| A cd makes a good template for the sound hole (5" dia). Overall dimensions are 12" W, 12" D, 18" H. I used 4 rubber Fender Amp feet. The two 1" holes on each side serve as nothing more than finger holes for carrying. This wood is finished with 4 or 5 coats of spray bomb laquer. |
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All joints are rabbetted, glued, and reinforced with a strip of pine also glued, as shown.
No nails were harmed in the making of this drum box.
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