Todd Sucherman of Styx

What can we say about Todd Sucherman that hasn't been said countless times already?  Not much.  Todd is the epitome of what you want in a musician, a drummer and a person.  Massively talented, tasteful, generous and kind.  We have worked with Todd for many years, most recently on a project for his incredible new Pearl Masterworks kit with a breathtaking quilted black limba outer ply.  Todd has long trusted us to match the bass drumheads to the finish of his kit -- it has become a "signature" look for him -- but this project presented many unique challenges.

First, the finish itself.  Dimensionally complex, it not only has a standard woodgrain pattern, but it also has, in Todd's words, a "shake" in the grain that comes from the quilting -- very difficult to reproduce.  In addition, the only sample he could provide also had an integrated "TS" rose gold inlay that needed to be *removed* from the scan and then *re-created* in actual rose gold material on the bass drumheads themselves.

To start, we took a high-resolution scan of the wood sample Todd sent.  From there, we printed samples and color-corrected to provide the closest match to the sample we had on hand and something that would match well with both the smaller and larger drums in the kit.  The larger the drum, them more "color" and less "fade." In order to best match the much larger physical dimensions of the drums, we ran through a number of mirroring and tiling processes in order to match the overall wood grain in the drums themselves before applying the color correction to the final layout.

Once the background image was finalized, we moved on to sourcing a mirror-finish rose gold that would match the hardware sample Todd also sent.  We went through just about a dozen options before finding the closest match that would least affect the sound or tuneability of the heads.

We could have stopped there, but one of OUR signature looks at DrumART is going the extra mile to add the little things -- an outline here, a shadow there.  We felt strongly that a thin black outline and outer shadow on all the rose gold elements would tie everything together and make the whole design "pop."  Although difficult to achieve a good match between digital print and cut material, it is the finishing touch that took the heads from "good" to "GREAT."

Ultimately, seeing the final product on the kit and knowing that, in some small way, our work may have contributed in to the look on our client's face made it worth all the time and effort.

Here is a video showing the heads in more detail as well as some of the heads we've done for Todd in the past.  I can only imagine what the next project will bring, but I can tell you that we hope and look forward to being involved!