A Brief History of DW Drums

Drum Workshop (also known as DW Drums or simply DW) is a drum and hardware manufacturing company based in Oxnard, California, with their slogan being "The Drummer's Choice".

Drum Workshop was founded in 1972 as a teaching studio by Don Lombardi. It originally offered private lessons and the occasional workshop. However, Lombardi, along with student (and current Senior Executive Vice President) John Good, began a small drum equipment sales operation to cover the facility's operation costs.

This operation soon created the first-ever DW product: The height-adjustable trap seat, which was envisioned by Lombardi. The demand became so great that, after accepting an offer to purchase all of Camco's manufacturing equipment, the primary focus of the DW operation became drum hardware manufacturing. DW's Camco origins can still be seen on their drums today in their unique round "turret" tuning lugs which were designed by George H. Way and originally featured on George Way drums. Following this, the next big product introduced by DW was the 5000 series nylon strap bass drum pedal, which was essentially a Camco pedal with the DW name placed upon it. The pedal was soon joined by the double bass pedal, the rotating-base and cable remote hi-hat stands. After additional growth and expansion, the first full DW endorser was found in Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe after he tried out a prototype DW drumset when he came to the shop to get his pedals adjusted.

DW expanded into larger facilities in Oxnard, California, and grew to oversee a new company, Pacific Drums and Percussion, a value oriented company offering lower-priced drum sets for beginners

DW pioneered the timbre-matching technique of grouping a set of drumshells together by listening to the note each shell holds before it is sanded. Each shell that comes out of the DW factory is stamped with the note of that shell on the inside. DW offers pre-made standard sized sets as well as custom drums made to customer specification. More recently, DW entered the drumstick market with the "3" drumstick lineup.

Many highly regarded drummers endorse DW, including Tommy Lee, Joe Morello, Derek Roddy (Serpents Rise), Dave Grohl, Dominic Howard (Muse), Steve Jocz (Sum 41), Longineu W. Parsons III (Yellowcard), Scott Travis (Judas Priest), Abe Laboriel Jr. (Paul McCartney), Neil Peart of Rush, Dave Matthews Band's Carter Beauford, Zak Starkey, and Nickelback and Martone drummer Daniel Adair. Thomas Lang has also recently switched to DW drums. Terry Bozzio and the late Troy Penland use them as well. Tony Royster Jr. is on their endorsement list along with Max Weinberg. Ex-Avenged Sevenfold drummer The Rev also used DW before his death in 2009. [source : DW Drums]