PA Lovetone – True Solid Drums PA Lovetone – True Solid Drums

Hand-carved in Western Australia

One tree.
One shell.
One sound.

Seamless snare drums hollowed from a single log of rare Western Australian hardwood – one continuous piece, carved whole. Nothing between the tree and the tone.

Explore the drums Our story

True Solid snare drums

Constructed for the connoisseurs of non-conformity.

The figure on these walls – tiger stripes, fiddle-back, gum veins – was drawn by the tree over a century. It could not be designed by human kind.

Explore the drums The tonewoods

The sound

The ring of metal.
The soul of a tree.

A crack that cuts like a metal snare, a woody warmth on the decay, and a midrange all its own. Sensitive and articulate across the whole tuning range.

Hear the drums What drummers say

Provenance, to the metre

Every drum can point to the spot where it grew.

Each shell begins as a salvaged tree, recorded with its GPS coordinates. The owner can stand – on a map or in person – exactly where their tree once stood.

See the map The ultimate recycling project

Slow by design

Years in the making. A century in the growing.

Every shell is given at least three years of natural air seasoning – and many wait far longer. A decade of research stands behind every drum that leaves the workshop.

Commission yours The process
Carved whole
Each shell is hollowed from one piece of timber – a single, continuous grain from edge to edge.
Pure timber
The shell is wood and only wood – free of glue and adhesive, so the tone is all tree.
Given time
At least three years of natural air seasoning, until the wood is perfectly stable – the slow way, on purpose.
Always traceable
Every donor tree is ethically salvaged and recorded with its GPS coordinates – provenance to the metre.

The instruments

Every tree is one of a kind. Every drum is too.

Each shell is carved from the very fibres of its tree – grain, colour and figure drawn over a century of growth. Every drum is serial-numbered and one of one.

Jarrah 14×8 snare drum in gloss finish Jarrah14″ × 8″ · Gloss → Tiger Striped Marri 14×8 snare drum in gloss finish Tiger Striped Marri14″ × 8″ · Gloss → River Red Gum 13×7 snare drum in gloss finish River Red Gum13″ × 7″ · Gloss → Lemon Scented Gum 14×6.5 snare drum in satin finish Lemon Scented Gum14″ × 6.5″ · Satin → Tiger Striped Marri 14×5.5 snare drum with wooden hoops Marri · Wooden Hoops14″ × 5.5″ · Gloss → Fiddle-Back Marri 14×8 snare drum in gloss finish Fiddle-Back Marri14″ × 8″ · Gloss →
View the full collection

The sound

The ring of metal. The warmth of wood.

Because the grain runs straight down the shell wall, a True Solid speaks with a ring akin to a metal snare – but with a prominent woody note and a warm finish on the decay. Here Paul puts one through its paces.

Sensitive & articulateover an unusually wide tuning range
An exquisitely rich midrangethe signature of a shell carved whole
Attack, resonance, sustainthat only these timbers, carved whole, can give

Watch more demos and tonewood talks →

The ultimate recycling project

Born a tree.
Reborn a drum.

Every shell begins as a salvaged log – from dangerous trees felled on private land, or ground cleared for development. Timber that would have been mulched, burned or left to rot is chosen, dried and carved instead into an instrument that will outlive us all.

No tree is ever felled from a forest to make a drum. 100% ethically sourced, always.

Read the whole story

The craft

From log to drum: as long as it takes. No shortcuts.

There’s love in the process as well as in the name – over ten years of research and development sit behind every shell that leaves the workshop.

01 – Salvage

The log is rescued

A network of sympathetic arborists supplies logs from healthy, stable species – salvaged from suburban removals, land clearing and scientific collections. Its location is recorded before the first cut.

Chainsawing a salvaged log
02 – Season

The wood learns patience

Each blank receives at least three years of environmentally controlled air drying – and the densest logs wait the better part of a decade – until the shell is 100% stable and will stay that way.

Freshly cut River Red Gum log, vivid orange-red, at the start of its seasoning years
03 – Carve

The shell emerges whole

The drum is hollowed from the very fibres of the tree, so sound travels straight down the grain to the resonant head – pure, unadulterated tone.

A one-piece Tuart shell blank, hollowed whole from its log

Provenance

Every drum knows exactly where it grew.

Records are kept of where each donor tree stood – its GPS coordinates and why it came down. Touch a pin to trace a drum back to its tree.

Sample locations and stories, for this design prototype.

Survey map marking the exact location where the Red Morrel drum log was salvaged, near Lake Giles in the Goldfields

The Goldfields

Out along the Evanston–Menzies road in the Goldfields: the area where the Red Morrel drum log was recovered. Goldfields timbers like these – collected during scientific studies – are among the densest and hardest woods in existence.

The tonewoods

All the colours of the eucalyptus rainbow.

From Tuart’s antique white to Jarrah’s ruby red – slow-growing hardwoods of exceptional density, most found only in this corner of Western Australia and nowhere else on Earth.

Also in the workshop’s future: Spotted Gum · Red Morrel · Salmon Gum · Karri · York Gum

Tuart tree

“The antique white piano of drums.”

A true vintage warmth straight out of the ’30s and ’40s swing era – a soft, creamy spread with an articulate metallic finish.

ColourPale yellow-brown, antique white
Air-dry density1,030 kg/m³
Janka hardness11 kN
A world first in drums
Meet the Tuart →
Lemon Scented Gum tree

“A citrus bite.”

The most metallic drum in the line-up – a tight, saturated bottom end with an ear-whopping bite reminiscent of thick brass, rounded off with buttery warmth.

ColourCreamy light brown, yellow-grey
Air-dry density950 kg/m³
Janka hardness11 kN
Meet the Lemon Scented Gum →
Marri tree

“Striking gold.”

Honey-coloured heartwood – sometimes tiger-striped, sometimes fiddle-backed – with an explosive, “nuked” midrange: rich, organic, and like none other.

ColourHoney, yellow to pale gold
Air-dry density850 kg/m³
Janka hardness7.1 kN
Meet the Marri →
River Red Gum tree

“Metallic red gum.”

Freshly cut, the wood is almost blood-red. The drum is rich in tone as well as colour – a punchy, warm thump low down and a metallic bite in the upper registers.

ColourOrange to reddish brown
Air-dry density900 kg/m³
Janka hardness7.3 kN
Meet the River Red Gum →
Jarrah tree

“Ruby reds.”

The mighty Jarrah – famous worldwide for its ruby hues. Dark, rich and throaty in the low register; an ear-splitting, almost metallic crack up top.

ColourDark red, pinkish red
Air-dry density820 kg/m³
Janka hardness8.5 kN
Meet the Jarrah →

In good hands

Heard on stages from Perth to New York.

True Solids are already working drums – carried on tour through Québec winters, gigged in Manhattan, resident in a Swiss drum atelier. The next stage is yours.

“Very musical… everyone commented on how good it sounded – it’s really a gem! Amazing rich warm tone with plenty of crack to cut through.” Aaron Comess – Spin Doctors, New York City Grammy-nominated · on his True Solid River Red Gum 14″ × 5.5″

Sleep Token’s “II”

London, England

Sleep Token’s masked drummer, on stage behind a True Solid shell.

Plays: River Red Gum 13″ × 7″

Josh Gallagher

Deraps – Western Australia / Québec

“All the explosive snap and punch of a Supra, but with the gooey warmth and colour of a wooden drum. It kind of nukes the midrange.”

Plays: Marri 14″ × 6.5″, built to his spec since 2018

Just played the Jarrah snare for three days… WOW! Absolutely amazing instrument. Bigger spectrum, more dynamic range, more frequencies – super sensitive in almost all tunings.”

Rolf Caflisch – Resident Pro, Remo’s Musikatelier, Switzerland

Tested: Jarrah, Marri & Lemon Scented Gum 14″ × 6.5″

Rudy Miranda

with Dave Hole – New South Wales

Session drummer and educator, live on his True Solid Marri.

Plays: Marri 14″ × 5.5″

More from the drummers who play them →

One of one, made for you

Commission your drum

Every PA Lovetone snare is one of a kind – when it’s gone, there will never be another. Choose the wood, the size and the finish, and Paul will carve yours from a log that has already waited years for you. In a hurry? A finished drum is sometimes ready and waiting.

How to order Available now Contact Paul

Follow the workshop – new logs, fresh carves and drums finding their drummers, as they happen.