North drums are horn shaped drums that were designed to project their sound outward, so the audience can hear the most direct qualities of the drum.

History

Their inventor, Roger North

Roger North

Roger North may refer to:*Roger North, 2nd Baron North , English peer*Roger North , captain who sailed with Walter Raleigh in 1617 and only governor of the Oyapoc*Roger North , English lawyer and biographer...

 (member of the Holy Modal Rounders and The Clamtones), created the drums sometime around 1968, played them himself, and then in 1970 obtained a patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 (3,603,194) and began selling the drums to others in about 1972. The original North drums were made of fiberglass, by hand. Sometime around 1976 North agreed to let another company, Music Technology Incorporated (MTI), manufacture and market the drums hopefully in larger numbers. MTI began to market and produce the drums using an injection-molded polystyrene process.

End of the North Drums

They stopped selling the drums in the early 1980s and now there is a used market for the drums, and a small though loyal contingent of North Drum players. Chad Channing

Chad Channing

Chad Channing is an American musician who is best known for being the drummer of the band Nirvana from 1988 until 1990, during which time they recorded and released their debut album Bleach...

 was known for using North drums in the early years of Nirvana

Nirvana (band)

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...

.

External links

• Picture gallery
• The North Drums Website www.northdrums.org
• http://www.staccato-drums.de/seiten/north.html