musical instruments founded 1982 ; 34 years ago 1982 in vancouver british columbia canada headquarters bedford quebec products drum kits drum sticks number of employees 9 website ayottedrums.com external video https www.namm.org library oral history ray ayotte oral history ray ayotte reflects on developing custom drum kits . interview date january 23 2007 namm national association of music merchants oral history library ayotte drums is a custom drum company based in bedford quebec canada . it was founded in 1982 in vancouver british columbia by ray ayotte who was forced out of the company after losing majority control to his investors in the late 90s . ayotte is especially well known for their resurrection and improvement of wooden drum hoops developed as an aesthetic & acoustically pleasing alternative option in place of diecast zinc or flanged steel hoops although ayotte also still offers steel hoops . the company s tension mounts a.k.a. lugs assembly is also unique unusual . using a cut away lug housing the traditional tension rod intersects perpendicular to a cylindrical nut similar to rack and pinion with a nylon plug insert which once tightened with an allen wrench makes movement of the tension rod virtually impossible thus ensuring the drum will stay in tune longer . ayotte s tunelock tension system is guaranteed to be indestructible under normal use . in the early 1990s ayotte produced a limited semiprofessional line of maple drums dubbed drumsmith available in a limited selection of colors and sharing the same lugs as their custom line . the most distinctive visual cue between the drumsmith line and the custom operation lies with the bass drum hoops which for the drumsmith line were offered only in a natural lacquer . also in the 1990s ayotte began producing their most often requested sizes and finishes in the custom line in advance rather than wait for a specific customer order . made in the same facility by the same craftsman with the same materials and machinery the ayotte pro line is simply an expedited form of their custom line . in the later half of the 2000s ayotte began offering a new small scale line of drums the velvet series . ayotte products are praised often on drum related forums across the internet for their sound and build quality . 1 however the company itself is infamous for their lack of customer service . 2 wait times for individual ayotte drums can take many years . one example of a replacement wooden hoop took 7 years to be delivered after being ordered . 3 in recent months reaching ayotte drums has been very easy compared to earlier years with the new staff which promises a potentially great growth in resolving these issues . ayotte drums relaunched their website after a short period of inactivity . ray ayotte rejoined the company in december 2013 but left again in early 2015 unable to make contact with new owner jean denis beaudoin and after the company stopped paying his consulting fee . ayotte drums determined in 2007 a more efficient factory with a reliable manufacturing staff was necessary to facilitate the anticipated changes arising from probable markets shifts in distribution and demand . the search for an appropriate location began in spring 2008 . this required two years including three provinces and more than twelve sites to complete the search . the factory was moved to bedford quebec in september 2010 . notable endorsing artists edit a number of drummers endorse or have endorsed ayotte drums including matt cameron of soundgarden and pearl jam jon fishman of phish allen aucoin of the disco biscuits eloy polito s nchez of alejandra guzm n ryan vikedal of nickelback and jamie chabun of state of the art . however most of those artists have gone on to endorse other companies who were more willing and or able to support them . references edit 1 http www.musicradar.com gear all drums acoustic drum kits 5 piece drum kits custom drum kit 17444 review 2 http www.pearldrummersforum.com showthread.php 245578 contacting ayotte ... http drumsmith.com showthread.php t 25368 & highlight ayotte external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ayotte drums & oldid 741644489 categories companies based in quebecmanufacturing companies established in 1982percussion instrument manufacturing companies1982 establishments in quebec navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 28 september 2016 at 20 23 . text is available under 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