About ASBA

ASBA is a French drum company who started out in 1927 when Alfred Boudard designed what would become the first music stand. Throughout the decades ASBA would go on to innovate the first double sided adjustable snare strainer which featured on their Super Revelation snare drum, the first boom cymbal stand and the Caroline bass drum pedal famously sold under licence in the USA by Ludwig.

The Caroline pedal was used by many notable drummers in the 70's including Mitch Mitchell. Between the late 40's and the early 80's ASBA drums, percussion and hardware grew in popularity throughout the world eventually enjoying distribution in 25 countries.

In 2016 Guillaume Pornet decided to relaunch the ASBA name and manufacturing of the drums back in France. The first two prototype kits debuted at the BagShow at the Moulin Rouge in 2017 and received extremely good feedback from visitors and the music press. By 2018 a complete team was established including the production facility in Lyon where the the new line up of ASBA drums are exclusively built.

The Rive Gauche Snare Drum

For the Rive Gauche ASBA referenced the drum sound of the 1970s opting for a 3 ply Maple / Poplar / Maple shell with Beech Reinforcement rings top and bottom. All of ASBA’s exclusive production techniques adhere to the companies vintage manufacturing processes from yesteryear. The shells are finished to an extremely high quality with precision finished edges and a beeswax coating on the inside of each shell too. The bearing edges on the Revelation are Rounded with the interior beechwood reinforcement ring 45° bevelled.

Every drum has a paper tag fitted on the interior detailing the model information and date of production. The snare drum’s shell mounted hardware options are equally impressive, there are 10 lug chrome plated DieCast hoops, the snare has a specially designed air hole that will hold an integrally designed ASBA drum key.

The snare strainer is the high precision, 100% chromed metal NickelWorks fitted underneath the strainer is a tag with the colours of the French Flag which we think is a really nice touch. The Snare Fixing ribbons are set to match the finish too. Finally the Brass 20 Strand Snare Wires are ASBA engraved on both ends. Again all of these parts adhere to exclusive ASBA designs from the 1960s.

Finally before moving on to how these sound we should quickly talk about the finish. This particular snare is finished in Lou Red, this is a hand tinted & polished, Vintage satin varnish.

The Sound

The reason retro shells have made such a strong comeback over recent years is due their versatility not just across different genre’s but also because of their generally wider tuning range and better dynamic response at lower volumes. The Rive Gauche have a wide tuning range, a warm tone, a round attack and a fast decay. The Snare comes supplied with ASBA’s own design 'Iconic' Coated drum head which is a 10mil single ply head. The Maple allows this drum to project very well and sounds great particularly in the middle to high tuning registers, the poplar core adds definition and control to the sound when compared with straight Maple shell drums giving the Rive Gauche a pre-equalised feel.

ASBA say that all their shells feature their ‘Drum Fit Control Technology’. This is a process developed by ASBA that ensures all of their bearing edges are perfectly flat delivering maximum contact between the head and shell. They designed the shells this way so the drums would deliver at the widest possible tuning range with the fullest tone.

• 14 x 6 Shell
• 3 Ply Maple / Poplar / Maple Shells
• Beech Reinforcing rings
• DieCast Hoops fitted Top and Bottom
• Lou Red hand tinted and polished satin varnish finish
• Integrated Air hole, drum key holder design on every tom 
• Shell and Hardware adheres to original ASBA exclusive design and production methods
• Chromed metal NickelWorks snare strainer
• 20 Strand Brass Snare Wires
• Fitted with ASBA designed drum heads throughout
• Handcrafted by ASBA in Lyon, France