Geoff Nicholls

Two hand-made snares in attractive beech wood from the recently launched and rebranded Japanese company

The old Tuscan firm returns with a set of cymbals that demand attention

Professional flamenco cajon with innovative design features and impressive bass response from this top Spanish company

Although Q offers kits in maple or mahogany, it's the metal kits, made from sheet steel, brass or copper, that draw the headlines

Two superlative custom snare drums hand built from scratch in the UK that look and sound awesome

The Chinese cymbal company, Stagg, first surprised us back in 2001. We always thought of 'proper' cymbals being of Turkish origin, most often via the USA and Europe

The transition from the 1960s to the 1970s saw a sea change in drum manufacture as drummers demanded much beefier hardware.

Sonor joins the Vintage revival

In his Essex workshop, Provenance's Tim Broughton takes reclaimed materials of fantastically varied provenance and fashions them into unrepeatable instruments.

Cindy Blackman-Santana's Istanbul Signature OM series debuted in 2009.

First we had Giant Beat and now we have Big Beat. What's going on?

Cutting large holes in cymbals to give a short trashy sound effect is not a new idea, but Paiste has gone a step further to provide this set of relatively low-priced PSTXs

A collection of dark, powerful and adaptable mega-rides

The lightweight Reso 7 is Evans' first ever coated resonant head with the firm claiming it "provides drummers with a solution for shorter sustain without the need for additional muffling devices"

Traditional-style cymbals, hand-crafted in Istanbul

Zildjian's first B15 bronze cymbals

Easily portable, undersized kits are increasingly popular and in 2014 Sonor introduced three options in its Special Edition (SE) series

From February 2016, Zildjian's new S Family takes over from the outgoing ZHT series.

Shaw is the UK's oldest brand of drumstick, dating back to 1866 and thus celebrating its 150th year in 2016.

Way back in 1959 Paiste manufactured its first cymbals from traditional B20 bell bronze, or CuSn20 as Paiste prefers to call it.

Pearl's fibreglass and wood/fibreglass-shell kits of the early 1970s were cutting edge and successful.

Cymbal variations just keep on coming, and it is to the manufacturers' credit that each addition has something unique to offer.

Cymbal variations just keep on coming, and it is to the manufacturers' credit that each addition has something unique to offer.