On Drummer’s Review, we don’t often review three snare drums in one hit, but this felt like the right moment to do something slightly unhinged. These snares come from Bersoni Custom Drums, a brand-new drum company from the South West of England, founded in 2023 by John, who essentially woke up one morning and decided to start building drums. Sometimes that’s genuinely how the best ideas start.
Bersoni’s whole ethos is about creating heritage instruments — drums that don’t just sound great today, but feel like pieces you’ll still be playing years down the line… or, at the very least, refusing to sell. All three snares here are built using traditional stave construction, meaning vertical blocks of wood glued together to form the shell. In simple terms, that’s lots of wood and not much glue, which is exactly what you want. The result is shells that are rigid, durable, and seriously projective.
Each drum is hand-built using UK-sourced timbers and finished with oil to really show off the natural grain while keeping the tone clear and open. It’s more labour intensive than ply construction, but the payoff is immediate. These snares feel solid in the hands, with no unwanted rattles or noise, and a reassuring sense that they’re built to last.
First up is the 14×6.5 Tigerwood snare, priced at around £680. With a 12mm thick shell, triple-flanged hoops, Indie strainer, and PureSound wires, this one is punchy, focused, and slightly darker in character. There’s a tight crack, controlled sustain, and a very direct, no-nonsense feel. It’s an “I don’t mess about” snare.
Next is the 14×7.5 Black Limba, coming in at approximately £640. This features a slightly thinner 10mm shell with reinforcement rings, mini lugs, and a really nice custom walnut air vent. Tonally, it’s warm, woody, and rounded, with open mids and loads of dynamic range. Honestly, if you told me this was your main snare for everything, I wouldn’t question it for a second.
Finally, the big personality drum: the 14×7.75 Black Limba, Sapele and spalted sycamore, priced at around £780 — and I think I deserve a small bonus just for remembering how to say that correctly. Jokes aside, it looks incredible, feels incredible, and sounds exactly how you hope it would. Articulate, lively, crisp, with loads of attack and a big, rich low end that stays controlled.
Pros? Straight out of the box, all three snares have very distinct personalities. None of them blur into each other. The finishes are beautiful, clearly individual, and it’s obvious a lot of care has gone into every build. In the studio, they all responded brilliantly to different tunings, making them genuinely versatile rather than one-trick drums. Being able to customise directly with John is also a huge plus and surprisingly rare.
Cons? We’d love to see the hardware become more bespoke in future. It’s solid and reliable, but the shells are definitely doing most of the talking. A clear-coat varnish option could also add a bit more visual pop. And while these sit in the mid-to-high-end price range, they’re priced fairly for what they are.
Overall, this is an incredibly strong start for a brand-new British drum company. Three snares, three clear voices, loads of character, and a real sense that Bersoni know exactly what they’re trying to build. I’m genuinely excited to see what comes next.
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