Fibes Drum Company was a US musical instrument

manufacturing company Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

that produced

drum kit A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

s. Founded in 1966, it was acquired by

guitar manufacturing Guitar manufacturing is the use of machines, tools, and labor in the production of electric and acoustic guitars. This phrase may be in reference to handcrafting guitars using traditional methods or assembly line production in large quantities us ...

company

C.F. Martin Christian Frederick Martin Sr. (german: Christian Friedrich Martin I.; January 31, 1796 – February 16, 1873) was a German-born American luthier who specialized in guitars and the founder of C. F. Martin & Company. He made the first guitar i ...

in 1970 which it sold the Fibes assets to Jim Corder in 1979, who subsequently established his own company, Corder Drums. The "Fibes" name was sold to another party, remaining for a brief time as a drum stick

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...

, which use ceased in 1994.

History

The company was founded in 1966 by Bob Grauso, a drummer, and John Morena, a drummer and

composite materials A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

professional. Fibes was a

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

manufacturer notable for its pioneering use of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

composites and transparent acrylic materials in the construction of drum shells. Fibes offered chrome plating on their fiberglass shells as well as a variety of other surface finishes. Chrome plated Fibes snare drums have an appearance that closely matches that of conventional chrome plated metal snare drums made by other manufacturers. Fibes drums, and particularly Fibes snare drums were used by

Buddy Rich Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, ...

, who continued to use the Fibes snare even while an endorser of competing products.

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was inducted into the ''Mode ...

was another drummer that played a Fibes double bass kit. The original Fibes Drums Company was located in

South Farmingdale, New York South Farmingdale is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 14,486 at the 2010 census. The hamlet is ...

and drums produced in that era bear the rectangular badge. Steve Luongo has the only set of Fibes chrome melodic toms manufactured in Farmingdale with the original rectangular badge. 6" 8" 10" 12" 13" 14" 15" and 16" toms are mounted on a custom rack system. The set includes a 6.5" x 14 " snare, 16" and 18" floor toms and two 14 x 22" bass drums. The Fibes company was eventually sold to guitar manufacturer C. F. Martin & Company, in 1970. Subsecquently, all Fibes stock and workforce were moved to "the Martin factory in

Nazareth, Pennsylvania Nazareth is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The borough's population was 6,053 at the 2020 census. Nazareth is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th most populous metropoli ...

, while Garuso retaining control of the company.Vintage view: Fibes
on Mike Dolbear website (archived), 5 Jun 2010 Then Martin sold the Fibes inventory and equipment to Jim Corder, who renamed the business " Corder Drum Company", while the "Fibes"

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

was sold to another party, who had a business agreement with Martin to distribute Fibes drum sticks. Corder then sold the company in 1990 to Sammy Darwin, a

radio programming Radio programming is the process of organising a schedule of radio content for commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting by radio stations. History The original inventors of radio, from Guglielmo Marconi's time on, expected it to be use ...

consultant, who operated the company under the name "Darwin" until early 1994. Tommy Robertson, owner of Tommy's Drum Shop in Austin, TX., learned of the status of Darwin Drums, and began negotiations to purchase the factory from Darwin. After eight months, an agreement was made. In December 1994, the factory was purchased and moved into a newly designed facility in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. The Fibes trademark was also purchased in December, thus reuniting the original name and product. Fibes has since stopped production of drums.

References

External links

Fibes
on Vintage Drums {{Percussion instruments brands Percussion instrument manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States