A Brief History of DW Drum Company
Drum Workshop (DW) was founded in 1972 by Don Lombardi as a small teaching studio in Santa Monica, California. To help pay for the studio’s rising overhead costs, Lombardi and his 17-year-old student, John Good (who would later become DW’s famous “woodologist”), began selling a unique custom trap-case seat that doubled as an adjustable drum throne.
A major turning point occurred in 1977 when DW purchased the manufacturing assets, machinery, and dies of the bankrupt Camco Drum Company. Utilising this leftover tooling, DW re-engineered the Camco chain-drive bass drum pedal to create the legendary DW 5000 pedal in 1979, establishing themselves as an elite hardware manufacturer.
Throughout the 1980s, John Good refined his shell-making abilities by fixing bearing edges for touring drummers. In 1989, DW officially entered the acoustic drum shell market, showcasing their first custom kits at the NAMM show and booking 60 orders on day one. DW relocated to its massive custom factory in Oxnard, California in 2000. By 2022, the legendary brand entered its latest chapter when it was acquired by the Roland Corporation.
The Chronological History of DW Drum Ranges
Over the decades, DW transitioned from using outsourced shells to engineering its own highly specialised shell types. Below is the chronological breakdown of DW’s main drum kit ranges, starting from their early days to their current active catalogue.
“Pre-Collector’s” / Santa Monica Era (Late 1979 – 1989)
- Details: Before DW had official named “series,” they hand-built custom drums using premium, raw Keller-made maple shells fitted with DW’s newly minted hardware. These early drums featured the iconic round “turret” lugs and are frequently referred to by vintage collectors as the Santa Monica or Early DW drums.
The Collector’s Series (1989 – Present)
- Details: Introduced at the end of the 1980s as their flagship custom line, the Collector’s Series is DW’s most famous range. Initially built using Keller shells, DW moved shell manufacturing entirely in-house in 1997 with John Good’s patented “Timbre Matching” system (where each shell’s natural resonant pitch is stamped inside). Over the years, this line expanded to include highly engineered wood grain configurations like VLT, X-Shell, VLX, and specialized wood lines such as Pure Maple, Pure Birch, Pure Cherry, Pure Tasmanian Timber, and Exotic veneers.
The Workshop Series (Late 1990s – Early 2000s)
- Details: Launched as DW’s first attempt at a mid-tier, non-custom production kit. These drums utilized thin, straight maple shells without reinforcement rings and shipped with smaller, oval-shaped lugs. The range had a short lifespan and was discontinued to clear the path for DW’s budget-friendly sister brand, Pacific Drums and Percussion (PDP), in 2000
The Jazz Series (2007 – Present)
- Details: Recognising that their traditional maple shells targeted rock and pop players, DW released the Jazz Series explicitly tailored for a warmer, die-hard vintage jazz tone. Instead of pure maple, these shells combine a thick maple core sandwiched between inner and outer plies of gumwood, constructed without reinforcement rings to provide a wide, singing tuning range.
The Performance Series (2010 – Present)
- Details: Introduced to bridge the pricing gap between imported PDP kits and ultra-premium USA Collector’s kits. The Performance Series is completely handcrafted in the Oxnard, California, factory using 100% North American Hard Rock Maple but features scaled-down “Quarter Turret” lugs and streamlined, pre-set configurations to lower costs. They use DW’s specialised HVX shell grain orientation for low, punchy fundamentals.
The Design Series (2013 – Present)
- Details: This range serves as DW’s highly affordable, accessible entry-level line. Unlike the Performance and Collector’s series, Design Series kits are manufactured overseas in Taiwan. They feature 8-ply North American Maple shells utilising HVLT (Horizontal/Vertical Low Timbre) technology and are recognisable by their distinct, low-mass “mini-turret” lugs.
Design Series “Frequent Flyer” (2014 – Present)
- Details: Developed in collaboration with legendary jazz drummer Peter Erskine, this specialised offshoot of the Design Series was built for the touring musician. It features shallow-depth travel sizes—including a 20×12″ bass drum and a 14×11″ floor tom—allowing full, professional acoustic projection out of an incredibly portable footprint.
DWe / DW Electracoustic Series (2023 – Present)
- Details: Standing as DW’s most recent major technical evolution, the DWe series represents a hybrid acoustic-electronic drum line born from the Roland acquisition. Handcrafted in California using 9-ply pure maple shells (Collector’s 333 configuration), these drums function as full acoustic kits that feature built-in internal wireless electronic triggers and specialised target cymbals, eliminating external cables completely.