Latos Drums, 11 Spring Street, Newburgh, NY (2026)

10/19/2026

Saying that these snares "develop with age" isn't a marketing line.

The two drums pictured have identical shells, finishes: the lower, darker drum has been aging in natural light for two months, while the upper was just finished this week. Both are 7x14 steambent birch.

The 800-year-old Japanese finishing process creates a surface that not only improves over time, but wears its years proudly. The most dramatic shift happens within the first six months or so, but it continues to look richer and deeper.

These feature solid brass, handmade hoops and lugs, my patented throw and butt (including snap-in key holder). All stainless tension rods with machined (not rolled) threads made to my own design, thick washers, stainless mounting hardware. Even the badge and air vent are made in-house. I focus on rigorous craftsmanship, honest finishes, and heirloom-oriented details.

I really did everything I could in the design of these to insure that they don't wear out... they just get better over generations of use. The only person luckier than the first owner is the person who'll play it next. ;)

These take an enormous amount of time, so I can only produce a handful every year. Taking limited orders for my 2027 run on the website now.

10/18/2026

I've had to discontinue my Nickel Silver series snare drums; HOWEVER, I just stumbled onto two remaining shells on a back shelf that I can build into finished instruments.

6.5x14"
4x15"

6.5" is an uncommon size for me: in a desire to make these a little different, I only built one or two other 6.5s, leaning towards 7" deep.

4x15" HAS been a popular size, and is a personal favorite: tunes low without getting out of control and high without getting thin, extra presence, extra room for brushes or whatever weird things you put on it.

I have really great affection for my Nickel Silver drums, and I hope to bring them back some day. It's not an exaggeration to say that these kinda changed my life.

Unfortunately, last year, my per-sheet price had risen to 13 times what it was during COVID, and now... I just can't source it at quantities that make sense for a completely individually handmade instrument.

Putting these two up on the website now. When they're gone, that is it for now.

gratitude to you all!

Aaron

09/28/2026

Local drum delivery day. No little noreaster is gonna stop that.

7x14" kakishibu birch riding sh***un in my daily whip, an eternally faithful 1983 Mercedes 240D.

03/10/2026

5x14 Kakishibu Birch Solid

Steambent solid shell - roundover/30° batter, 45° snare side

Traditional Japanese kakishibu finish, inside and out: thousand-year old process using aged bitter persimmon vinegar. Water resistant, gets stronger with time.

Hand machined brass and stainless hardware, including:
Patented throw off and butt plate with integrated key holder

Torch silver-brazed solid hoops and brass/stainless badge

Precision bespoke stainless tension rods with class 3 thread fit: the drum tunes smoothly but with good resistance, and stays in tune.

Truly things should get better with age: wines, heirloom antiques, relationships. I'm obsessive and made sure everything on this drum will only improve. No poly or lacquer to flake someday, no plated hardware to rust.

Sound: Presence with a capital P. Woody and warm, but really complex in the upper mids and highs (think tube overdrive). If you want the entire dynamic range to translate to the back of the room acoustically, or a rimshot backbeat that sparkles and explodes, this should do.

06/26/2025

Like everything at Latos Drums, this was to meet a personal need.

I carry a pocket-size on my person at all times, and between that, drum , and marking up sheet music... having a pocketable writing impliment I love on me is kind of a thing.

pens don't work for me (a lefty, they just go dry). Wood and mechanical are big/fragile/smear (lefty again). are great, but sometimes I want something super sleek, stress-free, and eraseable... especially for sheet music and gig charts.

So I've come up with a solution that works for me. And maybe you, too.

I call it the "Utilic."

Compact, pencil.

3.3" folded - fits in my coin pocket

4.5" posted- feels like a full size impliment

Two interchangeable tips:

"Everlasting" - tungsten-graphite that writes like hard lead BUT DOESN'T SMEAR, and is breakage-resistant, with one tip lasting something like 10 full regular pencils.

"Eterna" - tin-bismuth that writes by leaving a silver-colored oxide on the page. It's pure metal and wears INCREDIBLY slowly- a couple could last you a lifetime.

Both are eraseable with the eraser under the back cap.

Hand-machined from solid stock, right alongside my drums, to the same standards.

I'm loving mine for , and have one in my stick bag as a can't-fail pencil.

If you'd like one, I am making them, one at a time, out of your choice of , , , nickel silver (of course!) and Mokume Gane.

Link in bio currently goes to these. I have a lot of color options listed, but if there's some combo you can imagine from what I have described above and don't see, just say what you'd like in the order notes. I'll probably settle on just two or so metal combinations soon, but for now, until this supply of bar stock runs out... let's go wild. ;)

06/14/2025

I try to make them leave the shop , but prefer if they don't stay that way.

Front and center: shiny, brand new 7x14" Nickel Silver headed to California... beside two siblings from my personal collection: a 7x14" Nickel Silver and the 400th Anniversary (note something missing? logo was still in development, and we needed a drum I could battle test on the road without spoiling the surprise).

One of my favorite values to embrace, which I did with both my Latos line as well as the Z drums, is things that age gracefully and grow *into* their character. And marry that with a design that looks great that way: elegance AND vibe.

Nickel Silver is pretty corrosion resistant, but totally patinas (and can even pick up patina that starts on adjacent yellow brass).

The Zildjian alloy... love it. I've cleaned this drum a couple times for specific purposes, but I think I'm going to let it go full statue 🗽 this time. Unless I get around to doing the all-over etching and engraving concept I've been thinking of... unlikely, though, as I'm busy making drums for y'all.

There's totally an uncanny valley between "pristine" and "fully patina'd" where things just look dirty and fingerprinted. Trust me... keep going. It's worth it on the other side.

Shiny drums with chrome and wraps and etc? It's a fun world, and I might play there someday in my own name. (Designing for others? Absolutely- shiny drums are cool, let's go!). But today, I'm basking in some oxide layers. ;)

05/25/2025

When I started building , it was to have more specific, personal music-making tools. I didn't realize how many drum-making tools I'd need to make to do that!

I love inheriting things from other shops. Since I'm often buying and that is *super* old-fashioned and old-school... the lady clearing out her shop that cranked out screws for B-52s, or gentleman whose factory made to***co pipes for over a century, more often than not throws in a couple boxes of industrial detrius.

Sometimes it's totally insane and specific shop-made bizarro pieces (like an extended, foot long allen wrench for adjusting god knows what, or pieces of jigs specifically for gripping a to***co pipe by the inside of the bowl).

Other times, it's just a box of really nice unused knurling wheels (the tooling that creates that nice grippy texture on metal tools) that wind up being the right tool for the job a couple years later. In this case, I didn't have a holder the right size for said wheels... so in lieu of paying and waiting for something I hoped would work, I just made a holder I knew would work.

(And yes it's borderline silly, but whenever possible, I do try to sign my these projects so the next person knows who to blame. )

04/16/2025

"When you own a drum factory, every problem looks like a drum parts problem."

#5 in series
Q/C reject drum components, stainless steel wire, food-safe copper brazing alloy

Anyone else here the designated whipped cream/egg whites whisker? 🫩

***ey

03/22/2025

New , new .

I'm a diehard minimalist. And for years, I never even put a standalone badge on a drum. I was doing metal snares only, and stamping my logo felt tasteful. (It's also a hat tip to the stamped logo of the 20s/30s Lud 2-piecs brass snares of all varieties that inspired me to start building. Same thing with the position: ever note that my logo is just one panel away from the throw? Yep. It's elegant and unobtrusive, and is also a reference to those old drums for the Inner Circle of Drum Nerds.)

But then, a while back, I DID some wood drums where stamping wasn't an option: 's touring kit. I really wanted to celebrate the collab with , so I traditionally etched their logo and rigged up a jig to use my regular shell stamp. And it got me thinking... and, with wood drums of my own on the way, experimenting.

I tried a bunch of things, and of course, landed on the least practical, and most fastidious and time consuming option, because that just seems to be how I roll. 🥁 lettering, very very carefully silver brazed to a stainless steel plate with an jewlers' torch.

So there's your backstory, and here's a little peak: tada, the new badge for Latos wood snares, including the snares.

02/13/2025

Here's one you don't see everyday: reproduction of a Bower turnbuckle drum tuning system.

Yep, same Henry A Bower as the drum method: like several name teachers of his era, Bower was also a drum builder and overall clever man with drum patents to his name.

A handful of his drums employed this wild, idiosyncratic single-tension tuning system, and not many survive. The hooks grab the flesh hoop of the drumhead through small holes in the proprietary heads (how's that for ensuring the customer comes back!), with NO counterhoop in the mix - yep, bearing edge is right there exposed!

A "pin" style tuning key goes through the turnbuckle "lug," and turning it tensions both heads at the same time.

"But wait," the mechanically minded among you might be thinking. "That would only work if one of the hooks and side of the turnbuckle use left-handed thread!"

Right you are.

The originals were 12-24 thread. Not one to back down from obsessive detail, I actually, somehow, barely managed to hunt down tooling. 12-24 is not at all common (a topic on which I have a painfully massive essay in the wings), but lefty 12-24... forget about it.

The most enjoyable part of this, by an absolute mile, was getting to collaborate with . Latos Drums probably would not exist were it not for Jacques' incredible kindness (rivaled only by his incredible skillset and knowledge). I know the edge of my capabilities, and precisely reproducing a century-old forged hardware component is his wheelhouse, not mine. Still amazed by how incredibly accurately he duplicated the hook pattern. There's a recent video on his page of him forging these: go check it out. Some people are good at their craft. Some are incredible. Then, there's a handful like Jacques.

Proof? Photo #2. His work, and the one original he duplicated from.

These are headed off to go put an original steambent Bower shell back into complete, playable condition. Always an honor to get to help a drum of the past endure, doubly one of this stature.

Latos Drums

10/19/2026

10/18/2026

09/28/2026

03/10/2026

06/26/2025

06/14/2025

05/25/2025

04/16/2025

03/22/2025

02/13/2025

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