Canopus R.F.M. Standard Bop Kit

While developing the R.F.M. series, we first visualized what a maple shell should sound like. The modern maple drum shell has a solid, bright sound, but there are also some shortcomings that we believed could be improved upon. The shell itself does not resonate enough, the mid-range does not sustain enough, and there are often unwanted overtones.

We concluded that it must be possible to develop maple shell drums that maintain the existing desirable traits, yet also address these issues. With this in mind, CANOPUS has moved forward with an ongoing research into maple-shell construction, closely examining problems that arise as we experiment. For example, when we make a thin shell for greater resonance, we lose sustain and cannot feel the power of the drum. We know this through our experience and accumulated observations.

Reinforcement quickly drew our attention as a means to achieve a better sound. Reinforcement was originally meant to reinforce the shells, but we decided to use it proactively as a tool to shape tone. Through rigorous testing of all combinations in width, thickness and numbers of ply we have established our unique approach to reinforcing shells. Depending on a shell’s diameter and depth, we utilize different reinforcement construction as well as different shell construction. The result is our R.F.M. series that has a bright, solid sound with enough mid-range tone and resonance. We achieved a fantastic core drum sound as well; our maple drums have a wide tuning range, plenty of resonance and an excellent balance with the drum-set. We highly recommend our maple drums for all genres of music.