Poplar is not a cheap wood by any means.....it actually sounds very good. They wont tell you this but for years Ludwig's 6ply drums had inner cores of poplar as well......the "cheaper" Rocker and Rocker II series drums that were made in the USA were the exact same shells as the top of the line classic "all maple" drums. The reason poplar is considered a "cheaper" wood is because a lot if the import brands are now offering lower end drums made out of poplar instead of luan. The reason they are affordable has a lot to do with where they are made rather than what they are made out of. Only the top line japanese brand drums are made in japan now....the rest are made in mainland china or taiwan or hong kong now. Cheaper labor=cheaper price, not necessarilly cheaper materials.

BTW....the legacy series drums are as close to the original style shells as they can get without going to the original manufacturing process. The new shells are molded in a form machine much like the regular classic line is. They add the reinforcement rings after. The original shells were steambent into shape. This is why thay have that large lap joint at the shell seam. Costs would be even higher than they are now if they went that method.

They didn't always use Poplar as the middle ply. They used most any pith wood for that. Whatever they could get cheap and in bulk was used. That also makes it fun when searching out drums from the 60's and 70's. The reason they use a softer pith wood for the middle ply is because maple is not a real deep and warm wood by itself. To my ears, it's rather cold and direct. African Mahogany is deep and warm. That's why they mixed those at times. A softer wood will 'soften' the maple tone and attack. When you join maple and a softer wood you get the deeper and warmer tones that we seek in these old drums. Modern maple drums benefit from very sharp bearing edges which allows them to resonate more. That's good. Rogers cut similar edges way back in the day which explains why they foreshadowed what was to come.

I don't even know what pith wood is, but I know that poplar was used because:

1. It steam bends very well and thus worked very well for the old way that Ludwig used to make their 3-ply layup. A thicker piece could be bent rather easily -thus, the shells were mostly poplar and the inner and outer veneers were very thin.

2. It glues up well.

3. It was/is readily available and is a locally-grown wood.

4. It was not expensive in comparison to clear maple or mahogany.

My old woodworking instructor in college said that the only drawback of poplar was that it often had odd colors streaking through it -greens, blacks, purples mixed in with the mostly and, thus, did not work well, cosmetically-speaking. Clear consistent grain was preferable.

I think the more subtle sonic properties were not really that big of a consideration to drum companies back then. They used what was feasible and then made up a good story about the sound after the fact. :2Cents:

Pith is the center of the vascular plant. Strip off the outside layers (xylem and phloem) and you've got the pith. It's hard in some and soft and porous in others. Both Poplar and Pine pith were used as the middle ply for Ludwig and others. There were a few other woods used, also. Poplar was by far and away used the most. But, when it was scarce, they resorted to pine pith and a few others. They had to fill the orders.

Funny....these are the preferred things that DW was looking for in its woods a few years ago for its "exotic" finishes......

I know! I was thinking the very same thing as I was typing! LOL! And, in a way, it's true. Poplar can be a very unusually-colored wood. I have seen it have vivid bright greens, grape-purples, blacks, yellows -almost everything but red and brown!

But, I do know that poplar is a very friendly wood to steam bend. It sands easily...etc.singer

Hi,

I have also read that poplar, like gum, makes a good interface for gluing less bondable woods like Maple.

That may reflect older techniques for gluing plies, since Keller took us into the all maple ply drum a couple of decades ago.

Patrick

Actually, in trees, pith is a term given to the absolute center. It is simply the innermost part of the tree, where knots are very prevalent (early in the tree's life), making the structure of the wood non-uniform and very low in value. Today, the vast majority of this portion of the tree goes to railroad ties and pallets, where aesthetics are no concern.

The wood in our drums is typically rotary veneer peeled and the center (the pith) is not peeled. Very high end veneer is sliced in different ways, to achieve a more desirable look.

Being in the wood and forestry industry, I would agree that poplar is and was used due to it being low cost and readily available. Until recently, poplar has been a very cheap wood. China has been buying a lot of poplar because it is easily disguised as more expensive woods.

Good marketing does the rest!

Absolutely! And it's that soft porous nature that helps to soften and darken the maple tone. Excellent points Tillerva. Glad to see another science geek on the forum.