HighWood Drums @ Percussion - UK Hand Made Drums & Drum Shells + Parts and Components Supplier.
17/05/09
Xmas/New Year & 2010
HighWood closes its workshop at 5pm on the 18th December 2009 for Xmas & New Year, we are shipping orders up to 2pm that day & clients who can collect orders have received emails regading procedure.
Expect big changes for HighWood in 2010, starting early you will see changes in our product line, a wider shop/retail partners & how we operate.
This website will also be coming down though we may leave links to the parts pages & shells info so people can still order from them, but the drum info is too out of date to stay up....the new site we did has also now been scrapped due to some late business decisions in the last 2 months... worry not, its all positive & 2010 will see highwood keep pushing the UK drum industry to new levels & expect to see some very awesome new drums soon.
don't forget for the latset info on what we are doing catch up with us on facebook, its most often that not updated daily
thanks
Simon, Bob & Gareth @ HighWood
13/05/09
Martin Ranscombe Clinic 24th June 2009
HighWood & Rhythm Inc. have teamed up & asked our good friend The Drum Guru to do an educational Clinic for us, Martin is generally regarded as Europe's leading Drum Tuning Educator and Clinician.
In 2007 Martin released the DVD - 'Tuning Basics For The Modern Drum Set' focusing on giving the drummer a set simple & consistent method of sucessfully tuning their drums whlst ignooring the hit & miss & trial and error advice that is out there!
for more info on Martin check:
http://www.myspace.com/martinranscombe
This is the first clinic highwood have been involved in & we are very excited, Martin knows his stuff & somehow takes what is often viewed as a dull task in most drummers books & turns it into something fun, if you want to expand your knowledge of drum setup & tuning, this is not to be missed.
We also promise plenty of actual drumming going on with 2 support drummers opening for Martin.
There will be raffle prizes including Highwood products & some goodies from our associates.
Clinic Info
Wed 24th June
The venue is Silkstone Lodge, Barnsley , S75 4LY
It is 5 minutes off junc 37 of the M1
Doors 7pm
Tickets £5 each
Available from Rhythm Inc. Call Bob Wynne on 07779 799650
Or Buy Online with Credit/Debit Card using the button below
07/04/09
Quick update
Still working on the below items but thought i would let you all know the following
New World Maple Drum Shells & kits are available to order now, from 8" - 26" - email for quotes
Stave Shells & Snare Drums available to order now - email for quotes
2009 NEWS
Greetings.
thought i would update you on what we are doing through 2009 & what is going on right now.
its not been a great start to the year, Simon was on holiday in Australia from the 27th of December up to the 18th (git!)... so i was supposed to be manning the fort, however having been fighting man flu since early December it struck me down again on new years day, meaning is was also off work for the first few weeks back, so as of today 28th of January i only just feel like Im getting going again, i have been trying to catch up since walking back into work last Monday..... hells teeth we have a big backlog of stuff to do.
anyway we are getting caught up, unfortunately this does mean im very behind on the new website so that will have to wait & hopefully get sorted in Feb, the new website will have an updated & fully working store (including shells items) full details of our drums, merchandise, more info about the workshop, us & how we work, including video footage of us machining & building drums....... i just need time to work on it.
because of this delay, i thought i should let you know what we have planned for 2009.... this year we are going to push ourselves more than ever before, we are expanding again & sinking some serious money into increasing stock & product lines.
Some new info on what 2009 is bringing:
The CL & VG/Exotic ply ranges are getting tweaked & overhauled - including all new fittings for the CL
The limited run of New World maple ply drums is now a permanent product line - the 10 limited kits we made last year was such a big hit we are launching a full range, most sizes available & in a sensible choice of finishes, not quite as custom as the VG but kits will start at the £1000 mark..... a full range of snares has already been selling well in the shops.
22 & 24" bass drums now available in the Cast Acrylics, 18" toms & bass drums may be possible shortly (the cast acrylics got 4 out of 5 in this months rhythm magazine review)
Stave Drums, do you remember we did a couple of stave & segmented shell prototypes in 2007? - well the feedback from those two clients (cheers Bob & Mark) has been so good we are finally going to launch the Stave/block drums....... stave in std & exotic woods in all common snare sizes & Kits can be quoted for NOW
3ply 14" snare drums almost ready to go, available in Maple, African Mahogany or a mix of the two.... im in the final stages of testing, available to order from mid Feb, some prototypes available to order now, first come first serve. (kits we are working on, it wont be swift)
New parts, we have several new parts available or on their way, including - RCK premium throw offs, hoops, 14" wood yamaha snare hoops, spurs, brackets & possibly some lugs.
More dealers & direct access to our products for the public, having eDrum distribute & work with drum shops on our behalf is working well, they take the pressure of me doing sales & allow me & simon to focus more on what we are good at.... Making drums
New shells for diy & drum builders - im always working on new options for you lot, the 2009 maples shells in most sizes from 8" to 26" should be ready & available from stock by the first week in march... that's right FROM STOCK. stave shells are also being made available, but m not sure if i will add the 3ply, that may be exclusive to fully completed drums only.
im sure there is loads more i need to let you know about but as usual i have so much going on my mind just went blank......... so im switching off for now, if you want any more info on any of our work that & new products, drop me an email at highwooddrums@mac.com
sorry for any typos.. im shattered.
Gareth (current email inbox qty - 16648, 58 unread)
P.S - i will post more info on this later but im doing the National 3 Peaks Challenge this year, myself & a few friends are privately organizing the attempt to climb the 3 highest mountains in England , Scotland & wales in under 24 hours... its all for charity & Simon is one of our support crew, so its very much a Highwood Event, im hoping some of our clients & fans will be willing to sponsor us for the good cause, we are currently training for it & although no date is set yet we expect to do it around 5-6 months from now.
22-09-08
NEWS UPDATE
I'm still working on the New Website & webs store but i have delayed completing thjem due to several new developments in the works, i do wnat to keep our clients & new visitors to the site up to date so i will keep adding little updates everynow & then.
Firstly we are once again attending the National Drum Fair in Birmingham this coming weekend (27th - 28th Sep) so pop by if you want to check out a few samples of our work, meet us to chat about drums & perhaps take a way some of our discounted show models
check the NDF Website for more info
New Products & Developments
We have several new shells & finish options in the works & i hope to expand the Maple Drum range in the next few months (officialy called the New World Series), the 1st 10 kits sold out fast so it makes sense to build on this with a wider range of shells with the next batch, however we will allways have to have more limitations on this range, most probably with finish options.. we still have plenty of 12, 13, & 14" shells available for snare drums or sale as just shells, please email for quotes.
On the drum duilding side of things, again new things in development that i cant mouth off about too much yet, BUT the following are all in the works:
New Shells Options including:
Exotic Ply Std shells - exterior veneered VG shells in seveal woods, all drum sizes
Pre Finished VG shells - sparkle & solids gloss (not wraps but our new lacquer coating)
+ a couple of other things im not going to mention yet.
We are also looking at some New Parts that may or may not gett added to our inventory.
I will have major announcements about our Bespoke Drum line up soon
hope to see you at the NDF
G
12-06-08
Bit of Last Miniute News
New HighWood Artists
We are pleased to announce we have seversl new artists whos kits are in production
Paul Thomson - Franz Ferdinand
Ross Jarman - The Cribs
Andy Mapplebeck - Session Artist
Charlie Batten - Buzzkill
Drummer Live/London International Music Show
We are again exhibiting at Drummer Live this year, its much bigger this time round as its now all tied in with the London International Music Show, the first day (trade only) was today, public days are this weekend (14th & 15th) , if you want to try some Highwood Gear & take advantage of some special offers, come see us.
New Products
We have several new items that will be stocked shortly these include
Yamaha Style Wood Hoops - available in 14" 10 hole only to start with, estimated price £75 a pair
RCK Throw Offs - we are the new Uk agent for the RCK throw offs, this premium snare strainer is estimated to retail at £30, a matching but end will also be available
28-05-08
Bit of news - its all go right now, we are still working on the new site, its taking a while but will have loads of new things & the online shop will be much better & easier than before.
we have loads of new products on the Horizon as well, i will put newsup here if anything comes available before the new site goes live but right now time is short we have loads of new kits & several new Artists playing our drums or their kits are in production - watch this space.
below are some pictures of various recent Kit & Snare builds to give you an idea of what we have been turning out but unable to add to the site at this time, the new site gallerys will be fully up to date.
enjoy G
28-03-08
Drum Wraps
We are now incresing stock & wrap options, all wraps available in cut to size pieces or full sheets, the range will continue to expand over the next year.
we have launched a sister website to detail our wrap selection, this will soon be tied into our new site & shopping cart, which i will expand on below.
We are revamping the highwood site, pages of this site will no longer be updated, along with this we are building a new shopping facility that the drum wrap & highwood site will link into.
The aim is that our new online store will feature the following:
Our full range of shells, wraps, all parts & components
The ability to check our stock on parts & components
Save your shipping info etc in your account
View order dispatch info from your account
Submit your order & pay via Card, Paypal, Cheque & BACS
The new shop will be up and running before the new highwood site, i should have it upbefore end of april, the new main site will be up a week or so after.
G
21/02/08
Maple Shells Available Now
Our New maple shell line is ready & in stock available now
sizes available up to square sized depths are
10, 12, 13, 14, 16 - 4mm
20 & 22 - 5.5mm (with bass hoops)
14" - 7mm
other sizes available over time, please email for prices
New Website
Im doing a slight revamp of the website, it will still follow the same fomat, but cleaned up & simplified but with afew new features that will be added over time such as a tour of our facility, i am also addressing the bigs that keep repeating in our shopping cart, there will be a new cart/inventory that will house our entire range (all shells, parts, wraps & other products)
i should have most of it done in a couple of weeks.
questions & enquiries, email us!
G
05/02/08
Time for an update
Its been a while since I last updated, we have allot going on, but expect big site updates over the next month, im also considering revamping the site design, we have had this one for sometime & I have some new ideas which I would like to implement in V3.0 of our site, I will need to brush up on a few thing before I can get it going, so it will be a couple of months before I an launch it, anyway onto the news.
Maple Shells
As previously announced we are preparing to launch our Maple drum product line, by mid February we will have shells available off the shelf for faster turnaround, we expect to have similar for the VG birch shortly after, we aim to have off the shelf availability for the majority of our shell offerings shortly.
More Shells
Yes I have more shell news for you, also this month we will begin to offer our VG Birch shells in several std "exotic outer ply" woods, quite simply you will be able to order Birch shells in any size with the following wood exteriors - Walnut, Cherry, Ash, Red Oak, White Oak & Beech & perhaps more.
We will be stocking the above woods for a quicker turnaround than our usual Exotic work & they should be priced quite reasonably compared to std shells.
As ever we have lost more happening, but i will announce more info as i can
last thing - we had another PC fail on us early januray which has mant i have not gotten back to some clients as its created a back log, im getting through everything as fast as i can.
G
Christmas Holiday Closing
Christmas & New Year Holidays
Highwood closes for the holiday period on the 18 th December until the 2 nd January
The last parcel/mail post outs from us will be on the 14 th December
NEWS UPDATE 26-11-07
website update : more images to the gallery, the Cast Acrylic shells & Custom kits pages, we can accept orders for Cast Acrylic now.
New Product Announcement
Due to consistent demand for maple ply drums & shells Highwood has taken steps:
This coming January we will introduce the N.A Custom Drum Line & N.A. Maple Drum Shells.
The N.A. Custom drums will initially be available in the following sizes (almost any depth)
Toms - 10, 12, 13, 14"
Floor Toms - 14 & 16"
Bass Drum - 20 & 22"
Snare Drums - 14"
Estimated price for a 3pc shell pack in a natural maple finish is £999
Raw maple shells will be also be available to drum builders at a similar price to our birch shells.
New Bass Claw in stock
We now have the below stylish bass claw in stock in both Chrome & Black they will be added to our cart soon, but are available now priced at £1.50 each & 1.75 each
NEWS UPDATE 31-10-07
DRUMMER LIVE 07
Highwood drums had a great show at this years drummer live at the ExCel Center in Londons Docklands, it was our first year at the show and a total sucess... we meat many clients, sold alot of drums & made several new friends.
Ronn Dunnett of Dunnett Classic Drums & www.drumsmith.com was at the show and his drumsmith pictorial, we strongly suggest you have alook at some great pictures & video footage from the show.
http://www.dunnett.com/Drummerlive07/drummerlive.html
Ronn had some kind words to say about our work, which can be seen on page 2
"Gareth Heeley of Highwood drums is really making a name for himself.
These drums are of exceptional design and quality. His booth was always so busy I had to
borrow these 2 shots - I could never get an open shot of the drums!"
More News
Sevceral people have requested to read our 4.5 out of 5 review from RHYTHM MAGAZINE
Click HERE to read it here (adobe PDF format)
It will also be added to our Review page shortly
Pearl Drum Wraps
we now has a small selection of amazing pearl drum wraps available, we will be expanding our selection of wraps as time goes on, the wraps available in a full 23" x 53" sheet, or you can order pre cut wrap to the depth of your drum, the wrap page will be online shortly.
New Shell options on the way soon, all available from stock.
Shopping Cart issues - i have most of them fixed, everything should be back to normal in the next 5 days.
Gareth
IMPORTANT - WE ARE HAVING SHOPPING CART ISSUES
Not sure what paypal have done but their new system broke our cart, im fixing it as quickj as possible, if you try to order anything & it does not work, please email me your order & i will process it manualy & request a paypal payment from you.
thanks
Gareth
03/08/07
Rhythm Mag Review
Out NOW
we have not seen it yet, go buy it, we will put the review up here ASAP
Web updates & pricing
Im working on getting the website updated asap, i have lots of new things to add, some info is below
New parts in stock:
SMP lugs in Black Chrome
Smp snare lugs in stock for deeper shells (6.5+) - chrome only for now
Floor tom legs, Pro Floor tom legs in Chrome & Black chrome
Std Floor Tom Leg/ Tom Mount Brakets in Chrome & Black chrome
42 Strand 14" Highwood snare wires (13" wires in stock soon)
New Pricing on some parts - we are reviewing pricing on Heavy Tom Brakckets & DSS mounts Trad Throw offs,
we hope to be able to reduce the cost of some parts
Full price guides on the Anywood & other Custom drums will be up & fully up to spc within 4 weeks.
New Custom Lite drums pricing in in around 7 days, pricing now will include drums with evans heads as std, we are alwo working on new finishes, both std & upgrade.
We are now starting prepping for the NDF in Birmingham, its just under 2 months away, hopefully see you there.
Cheers Gareth
04/07/07
Merch Now In Stock
Highwood Leaf Logo T-shirts (sizes S, M, L, XL) & Stickers available are now available, T-Shirts are avialble in black with a White Logo, The Thsirts are NOT screen printed, the print is much higher quality that is guarenteed to last far longer than a screen print, the first batch of T-Shirts are £8.00 each (£10 with P&P in UK) .
To Order - Email us or send £10 via Paypal to highwooddrums@mac.com or gheeley@mac.com
Sticker info to follow Both Tshirts & Stickers will be on our site & Myspace soon
Drum Heads
We are increasing our head stock levels, from thew end of this week we will have the following items available from stock at very good prices
G1 & G2 Clear - 10" 12" 13" 14" 16"
G1 & G2 Coated - 10" 12" 13" 14" 16"
Power Center Reverse Dot - 14"
Hazy Snare side 300 - 14"
EQ4 Bass Batter - 18" 20" 22" 24"
G1 Coated Bass Reso - 18" 20" 22" 24"
Black Bass Reso - 20" 22"
Thats All For Now
G
22/05/07
Paul Brooke RIP
http://www.mikedolbear.com/story.asp?StoryID=1299
In Pauls Memory, Highwood & DM Drums are honoured to announce:
The Paul Brook Signature snare drum.
* 14" by 5½ " Birdseye Maple 7mm shell
* Hand cut 3mm snare beds
* 2.3mm steel hoops
* Hard oil wax finish
* 10 CNC machined one point lugs
* Taye side latch snare throw off
* Highwood Phosphor Bronze 20 strand snare wires
* Evans Reverse Center Power-dot Batter
* Evans Hazy 300 snare side
* Exclusive etched badge
The Paul Brook signature snare drum will be available for ordering until 5pm on Friday 6th July. No orders after this time can be accepted under any circumstances.
Full payment must be received within 5 days from order. Orders without full payment will be cancelled. Payment by personal cheque only, details available on request.
Full cost is £299.00 plus £15.00 for UK shipping. Contact DM Custom Drums for overseas shipping rates. All profit from the sales will be donated to the Paul Brook Trust Fund. Only material costs will be covered, labour and development costs will be met by DM Custom Drums and Highwood Drums & Percussion. The full amount to be donated will be announced once the order period has closed.
Each drum will be individually numbered, allocation of the drums will be randomly selected and correspondence will not be entered into on this matter.
All orders will be delivered no later than 28th September 2007.
Specifications may be subject to change, any changes will be notified.
Case available at extra cost, details available on request.
Also
Pages of site slowly being added to, new pricing will go up on many of our drum & parts pages, more Shipmen ts of parts (new items & re stock) are on their way.
another update over next few days
G
10/05/07
Web updates, im adding major a mounts of new content over this month, this includes:
Full pricing on other shell options - Modern Vintage, Steambent, Exotic ply & hopefully the anywood
Re launch of the new spec Exotic ply & info on the any wood full kits & snares
Fully finished online shopping for ALL our products, shells, parts & accessories
Dream Cymbals - New to the Uk, the Cymbals that have managed to recapure the classic sound of 30/40's Istanbul "K's" & 50/60's American A cymabls, you will not believe the price.
new OEM, Trade Pricing & info pages on the website regarding this.
More updates tomorrow or in the next 2-3 days
04/04/07
New Stock In & Ready To Go
The Latest shipment is in & im updating the site as fast as possible, if anything you want is not uploaded onto the cart yet, email me: gheeley@mac.com for quotation & info. we have some more stock of Back Order items also due soon.
Phone issues, yes we are having them & this combined with recent Email problems means we are VERY behind on Quotations, enquirys & this has had a knock on effect to parts & order dispatch, i will get to you asap...... but it looks like our phone problems wont be resolved for another atlest 10 days (thanks BT & Tiscali).
Highwood is closed for the Bank Holiday from Friday-Mondaythats it for now,
More updates in a few days
G
28/02/07
New Products & Production Update
Parts - we have new lug, mounts & spur designs on the way (being made right now) , this includes a new single point lug in Snare, Tom & Bass formats
Steambent Shells & Snares - here are some previews of the new line of SB Shells, one Maple one Purplehart, the Snare Drum Line will include some of our new components, Exotic wood pricing & availability will follow soon, maple pricing should be up on the site in a week or two. Kits will follow in the near future.
Until then please email enquiries regarding steam bent shells & snares, we can take orders now, Maple Snare Drums RP is currently expected to be £399.99 e-mail gheeley@mac.com with questions & pre orders
Ply Shells News
Due to increasing demand we are currently expanding our shell production capabilities, many of our OEM & Trade clients are already aware of this, and this has been partly responsible for slow completion of orders, we have been working on a new shell moulding system for the last few months.
The good news is the new system has been completed, tried & tested & works beyond our expectations, it allow us to make the same quality of hand made shell we have outputed for the last 2 years, but it allows us to make shells 5 x faster than before.
we are now making moulds for all sizes of shells & hoops, the outcome of this:
Highwood will soon have a full inventory of stocked shells available for fast delivery in:
VG Birch
New VG07 Birch shells (details to follow)
Various Exotic Ply including:
std stock Walnut, Cherry, Oak, Ash, Beech (Stock Kit shells to follow)
Limited One off Production runs of other Exotic woods - Rosewood
is the first
A full & current inventory list will be on the website & updated weekly & it will also mean all new Trade & OEM pricing based on qty orders.
We currently have the 14, 12 & 13" moulds completed, we expect to have full capability of std shells in 4 weeks, until then we will be using a mix of old & new method.
more news in a week or two.
Gareth
08/02/07
Mike Dolber Interview & Snare Drum Compertition
I recently did an interview for www.mikedolber.com about my aproach, views, product lines & background to Custom Drums, Ontop of this there is a compertition to win a Highwood Cutsom snare up to the value of £400.
here is the link
New Products
Prices & info on the steambent snare shells will go up soon.
New lugs, mounts & other components - im working on several new component lines
Several new drums builds have been added to the gallers section & im also writing a FAQ section.
Phone calls
i have had several messages saying our phone is permanently engaged
or we are not answereing it!
At the workshop we only have a dial up connection if we are online answering emails the phone will be out, likewise if one of us is talking on it, when we are machining we cant hear the phone so wont answer it, also we have had LOTS of calls for general enquiries such as "can you get axis pedals" or " how long a T-rods do i need for this shell".......... PLEASE submit all enquiries & general questions by email, we cant make peoples orders if we are answering the phone all day, i answer emails during my breaks in the day & on an evening, you will get a response, if you have to talk to us & cant get us... Email about it & we will arrange atime to speak on the phone.
More updates soon
G
