DW have recently begun shipping Collector’s Series Private Reserve Exotics finishes. Hand-crafted at the California Custom Shop, the exclusive range of exotic wood veneers is only available in limited supply.
John Good, DW’s ‘wood-whisperer’ and drum designer, has once again traveled the world to hand-curate a collection of select wood species that can be ordered as exotic finishes over available DW shell configurations. Each exotic finish can be custom ordered in hand-sprayed polyester gloss lacquer or matte finish Hard Satin lacquer. In addition, these can be combined with an array of bursts, fades and transparent lacquers.
The collection includes as follows:
- Tortoise Shell Pommele – a rare, semi-hard wood sourced from Ghana, Africa
- Congolese Moabi – the extreme quilting of this pinkish wood comes from environmental drought conditions
- Padouk – ordinarily only available in a vertical configuration as the veneer usually comes in 6” strips. However, John Good found a unique log from which 25” strips could be cut enabling DW to offer a rare horizontal version
- Maple trees on the outer edges of forests in Michigan are exposed to extremes of the cold and stormy weather. This harsh climate causes stunning figures to form in the grain of the heartwood and produce Super Maple Curl
- African Chechen – generally a white wood with a straight, stripy grain
- Monkey Pod wood from Hawaii – dark, rich, with golden hues, usually has a less figured grain. John Good has located an piece of timber with a very expressive, tight grain pattern to perfectly compliment the Candy Black Burst.
John Good comments: “Last year I found these logs on a very productive wood hunt. My wife Esther and I have the good fortune of traveling the world looking for woods that that are rarely used on musical instruments. And I have these relationships with wood purveyors that come in handy. They’ve become friends. They know what I like and they save things for me to see. These new Private Reserves are some of my very favorites.”
