I have a 2006 Pearl EXR kit with a custom painted finish. The shells are 6-ply poplar and sound excellent! I sent the shells to Precision Drum and had the bearing edges cut to a round-over/45, which gives a very nice "vintage-style" sound!

vintage ludwigs are 3 plys with the inner and outer being very thin plies of maple and or mahogany and a larger center ply of poplar. the poplar probably has a lot to do with the overall sound i'd imagine..

mike

Both American Maple and African Mahogany are much denser/harder woods than poplar, which is very light and not very hard/dense at all. (see numbers.)

Hard woods transmit vibrations faster than soft wood. The mix of hard and soft wood is what gives shells their ability to vibrate and then project the sound. These are the density by weight numbers for:

African Mahogany: *31 - 53 lbs.

Maple: *39 - 47 lbs.

Poplar: *22 - 31 lbs.

*Depending on moisture content.

I would imagine (and I'm spit-balling, I don't know for a fact,) that the purpose of the poplar in ply mixes is to soften/warm-up the sound of the drum. An all poplar shell would probably sound very warm, but not project nearly as well as Maple or Mahogany lay-ups using poplar as a sound balance for the hardwoods.

Make sense?

John

It may also be a constructability issue. Poplar is a very stable wood. That layer may have been used to help stabilize the overall shell, particularly in the days before some of the current lamination techniques were developed. One can also speculate that there was a cost factor involved. Poplar was probably less expensive and brought the overall construction into better budget control while at the same time enjoying stability and warmth of overall tone.

On old Ludwigs and Slingys the inner and outer veneers are so thin compared to the much thicker poplar core that I believe you're mostly hearing the poplar. Most veneer is about 0.02" thick so were talking about 0.04" compared to about 3/16" or so of the poplar?

Steve

I made this shell entirely from Poplar that I bought at Home Depot. It is a 13x7. I was amazed at how good it sounded. It is pretty loud and warm. I painted a layer of clear lacquer inside and out and then covered it. Poplar is not a go to wood for high end drums, but it makes a surprisingly good shell. very stable and easy to work with.

I believe the Pulse and Gretsch Blackhawk shells I used for my church set build are all Poplar. Pretty flat tone-wise but there is no finish on the interior, and flat tone is O.K. for this particular low volume gig.

Poplar (single species) shells are not a good sound to my ears. Very unpleasant.

Basswood ... Asian Lime ... whatever you wish to call it ... is a much more pleasant drum sound to me ... if we're talking cheap cheap shell wood choices.

Poplar has a strange tonal ring that seems (but most likely is not) dissonant to my ears. I place them (ranked by warmth, woodiness, resonance, drum character, etc.) at the bottom. I would take a big leaf mahogany or basswood kit over a poplar kit every time.

Currently, I gig with a modern kit with poplar shells. To be honest, I was surprised at these drums. Bright attack balanced with warmth and fullness. Seem to project this, too.

The band members I play with noticed and complemented them first gig I used them. These guys have heard the vintage kits I've used and liked them, but seem to like my poplar cheapies more.