Drum designer William Reeves shows a 14-inch snare drum that is about half finished, at left. Each piece of wood is called a stave and this one is a mixture of black walnut and myrtle. The finished product will retail for more than $1,500.00. World Photos by Madeline Steege

When William Reeves put together his talent for computer programming with a love of music, he came out with a heart-pounding development that's paving the way for a local start-up company with booming potential.

Showcased before the white walls in Reeves' Eastside home, alternating golden honey myrtlewood and dark chocolate black walnut ring the outer shell of uniquely South Coast drums that are just now hitting the market.

It's only been months since the lanky 30-year-old database developer began making and selling the one-of-a-kind hand-crafted acoustic myrtlewood drums but the final product is the result of years of experience in numerous fields.

"Over the last 10 years I've done a lot of experiments," the brown-haired programmer said.

It all started with a 22-year-old love for drumming but creating and building musical instruments is a more recent affair.

Reeves, who once developed databases for school systems in Oregon, Alaska and Nevada, used his computer skills to create a calculator that can tell do-it-yourselfers precise cutting angles, dimensions and final wall thickness of drums by imputing simple design specifications. The program also allows users to see how two different types of wood will look when joined together and eventually will introduce users to myriad sounds different woods produce.

"That's how I started building drums," Reeves said. "I basically built a calculator for other people to do it."

Reeves posted the calculator on-line to allow others to follow the directions but he said he's not concerned about freely giving away the secrets to designing and building his myrtlewood drums.

"In some cases, showing them how to do it inspires them to buy one from you," Reeves said.

In fact, a number of other tricks and processes go into making the hand-crafted marvels that make the process difficult and hard to master. For stave drums, which are made from numerous vertically joined pieces of wood held together by a steam-bent backing, Reeves enlists the help of a friend in Colorado to actually create the pieces he will then join.

Reeves uses other tricks to make the items high-end, including adding neoprene washers to fasten down hardware to ensure no rattles can be heard when drummers play. He learned to vent drums without making unsightly holes through a drum's shell that can be plugged accidentally and on stave drums, Reeves also knows how to use the right amount of glue to ensure the tone won't be muted or dulled by connections.

By far Reeves' greatest achievements, though, are the solid-shell myrtlewood drums. For that project, Reeves enlisted help of a woodworker to turn 14-inch myrtle logs on a lathe, hollowing the pieces out and creating a single-piece body.

Taking up to 150 years to grow to 14 inches around, rare myrtle trees provide Reeves with the option to build a single body drum that brings with it South Coast history. And for many musicians, single piece drums are preferable to stave drums because they don't require glue or connectors to tie together loose pieces that can change the sound of the drum.

Total build time for one of Reeves' drums is about 10 hours. Working in a garage where he stores a router, drill press and air compressor, Reeves typically takes five to six parts at a time and completes each delicate process on each drum before moving on to the next step.

Making the bearing edge on the drum shell is one of the most complicated parts of the process. It requires passing the unfinished shell through a router bit up to 16 gentle times in order to keep the wood from being destroyed.

A drummer for more than 20 years, Reeves started in the early 1990s to use his knack for electronics to build low-priced alternatives to expensive accessories for electronic drums.

Putting together simple items such as the soft, spongy material of a Nerf arrow, a film canister and a bracket, Reeves developed a trigger device for electronic drums. Reeves was able to put together devices that sold for $400 for about $25, he said.

"When I walk around a store and I'm walking around a plumbing section, I'm not looking for plumbing," Reeves said.

Through a company he started as Logistix Percussion in 1992, Reeves began to market and sell his easy-to-build triggering devices for electronic drums.

The company since has evolved into Logistix Productions Inc., a database and Web site developing company but Reeves continues to sell parts for electronic drums through a Web site he developed in 1995.

He since has brought together thousands of enthusiasts. He also created a pay-to-enter forum that currently has about 700 subscribers who share, learn and request information about electronic drums and how to create low-cost alternatives to otherwise expensive parts .

But there's nothing inexpensive about Reeves' new line of myrtlewood drums. Snares can range in price from $1,700 for whole-body items carved out of a single piece of wood to about $750 for less elaborate models made of numerous pieces of wood.

As a drummer accustomed to playing in local churches and theaters, Reeves is quick to point out the benefits he sees in evolving into a drum maker.

"I would rather be making drums that have the same attention that I put in databases but that get passed on to generations," Reeves said.

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On the Net:

http://www.oregondrum.com

http://www.acousticdrums.com

http://www.electronicdrums.com