Drums With Plastic Heads

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31576, 13 January 1968, Page 5

Drums With Plastic Heads

A small company in MidWales, employing 15 people, is one of Britain’s largest exporters of percussion instruments. The company has now fitted its drums and tambourines with a plastic skin. For one of the oldest and most traditional industries in the world this is indeed progress. Fred Ross spoke about the new development to Albert Parsons, the managing director of the Parsons Percussion Instruments Company, in the 8.8. C. World Service programme “Wales Today.” Mr Parsons told him: “This is a polyethalene film—plastic, which we have been experimenting with for all of three years now to produce a drum head to take the place of a natural calf vellum. We had to find a plastic, which would really take the place of a natural vellum to give us the maximum of tonal quality, and with this we also wanted (1) low moisture absorption, (2) great tensile strength, and (3) reasonable flexibility.”

He said these instruments With a plastic skin were selling very well. “We’ve got some up in Northern Norway in Bodo in the Arctic Circle,

well, and the Norwegians speak very highly of them. They’re suitable for every climate in the world—climates with high temperatures, cold, high humidity. Dampness will not affect the tonal quality or the playing of the drum, and I can see the time in the not too distant future, when all drums and timpani will be fitted with plastic heads. The demand for Parsons drum master drum heads is increasing week by week, and overseas buyers are asking for plastic heads in most of their specifications.