The GMS Drum Co. was started, with very little fanfare, in 1987.
Rob and Tony met through Tony Fabiano, a mutual friend who owns the Long Island Drum Center of Little Neck, NY. Tony Gallino had been messing around with making production drums more “usable”. Things like getting the drums true, re-doing the bearing edges, installing better mounting hardware and so on. He also was crudely making throw-offs and lugs out of metal stock. While showing Tony Fabiano some of the things he was working on, Fabiano said “you have to meet Rob Mazzella. He’s a machinist. He could probably make these things a lot easier and faster”.
Well the two met and instantly got into “shop talk”, and decided to make some prototypes.
From these “prototyping days” came the original Grand Master Series lugs and throw-off, which are still in production today.
The GMS philosophy was to make a drum which didn’t need to be fixed or “doctored” to be playable. One only had to take the drum out of the box, tweak to taste, and play!
The drums were awesome! Everybody who heard and played them were floored by the tone, response and incredible openness that these drums displayed. It was like, wow! Can you make me some drums??
And that’s how it started….
Take a look at the timeline. These are but a few of the many innovations achieved by GMS. We are constantly seeking new and better ways to make drums.
A maple snare drum with a metal liner? You got it.
How about a real old sounding kit, but new, and without the shortcomings of the old stuff? Got that too!
Take a look…
Take a good look