I am writing a book about the history of Drouyn drums, a very unique and worthy Australian drum manufacturer based in Brisbane.
If anyone has any stories, owns or owned a kit, any contacts, any information, to forward, it would be much appreciated and the story and or images would be fully acknowledged in the book.
Publication is scheduled for 2011, not exactly sure when.
Many thanks
HiHat
Welcome to the forum,I think you are in a good place to get responses,I hang at a few of the most active forums and I have seen more posts here on Drouyn drums than anywhere else.Don't know how deep you are on your research,but I have a question for you,I have seen pictures of Drouyn drums on this site and a couple of catalogue pics,also some pics of drums called Strativarius that folks from Australia posted and catalogue pics of Dandy drums and the lug casings look exactly the same,the thing is those casings look exactly like the ones in this 1939 premier catalogue http://vintprem.moonfruit.com/#/1939/4535723820.My question is it possible that These companies purchased these lugs from premier or did they(or one of those companies) buy the tooling and move it to Australia? Here is a couple of threads concerning Drouyn Drums. http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?p=8445 http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=2637 and one with a pic of a stradivarius drum http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=15850&highlight=stradivarius+drums
Thanks for the reply. All of what you are saying is quite possibly true.
Drouyn made everything, from what I've been told so far, snare wires, lugs, fittings, shells, they were I believe completely self contained. This is something I'm hoping to confirm with the research so I will keep you posted. Thanks for the links.
As far as Dandy is concerned, that may have been a sideline or cheaper line of theirs or imports from where ever, most likely Britain, I will endeavour to clarify that too.
Many thanks
Hi Hat
hello ...have sent a PM to HiHat Maghandi re Drouyn drums
yes we own a full kit and can help with more information on them..
As noted above, that four page thread in here started back in 2006 (which I contributed some anecdotal stuff to) is informative down to actually name-checking the staff.
I visited the factory once very briefly in the early eighties. But I've never owned or played them though I do occasionally get to see Easybeat Snowy Fleet's original Drouyn bass drum and snare once in a while (covered in a not very good black finish which I presume is a bad re-wrap but sadly might not be).
The aforementioned thread above is a pretty starting point though I suspect some of the contributors are no longer with us......no, that sounds wrong....they've left the forum not the, er, building.
Drouyn made everything, from what I've been told so far, snare wires, lugs, fittings, shells, they were I believe completely self contained. This is something I'm hoping to confirm with the research so I will keep you posted....
Just to throw a spanner in the works...
Yes, I believe Drouyn had the capacity to manufacture all of these parts in house... but they didn't always... It's mentioned on the site somewhere that Drouyn utilised some Premier hardware at times...
As testiment to that, I have a totally original Drouyn set here (built 1981) that has Premier spurs, tom mount and skins
Will try and upload a pic or two later
Dave
It wouldn't surprise me if they were (as has been noted elsewhere) either getting some of the metalwork from Premier or, when Premier changed their fittings, actually bought the tooling and kept using these a la Camco and DW (though obviously Premier didn't go bust).
And carrying on in that speculative mode, it also wouldn't come as a shock if in the later days, just as Camco did, you could order specific fittings for your kit (Rogers fittings, particularly, show up as "factory" on Camco quite often).
None of this based on fact of course - just imagining what a shop with such a small production run might have allowed.
I've still yet to speak to anyone who actually bought and picked up a kit from the factory though there must be a bunch of these people floating around Brisbane.
I've still yet to speak to anyone who actually bought and picked up a kit from the factory though there must be a bunch of these people floating around Brisbane.
True true.
There are a couple of Drouyn specific collectors floating around Brisbane. I know that at least one of those guys keeps in touch with the Drouyn family descendents.
Hat, I don't have any contact details for these guys but if you got in touch with the Drum Cartel (or somewhere similar) they might be able to pass your number around?
You might consider contacting Don Sleishman too. He used Drouyn shells for a while and knew Lois well.
I owned a Drouyn kit in the 70's. Wish I still had it. The chrome wasn't fantastic but the drums sounded exceptional. Similar to Premier in sound but also quite unique.
Hi, I have a couple of pics of me sitting at a restored Drouyn kit I bought 80/90's second hand of course, if your interested. Used to love seeing Johnny Dick et al's play their Drouyn's in the 60/70's. As an aside, A French polisher advised me to restore the wood with a mix of Linseed oil and turps, initially daily then tapering off to a couple of times a year. Something I've done with all my kits new and otherwise. Works a treat re enhancing the sound and the look of the plys. If you want the pics let me know and how! cheers, Paul
