rdavidr | David Raouf | The DIY king of drum YouTube
David Raouf, better known as rdavidr, builds, hacks and repurposes drum gear for 380,000 subscribers. His story, his kit and the latest rdavidr news.
David Raouf, better known as rdavidr, is a drummer and content creator who has built one of the most watchable channels in drumming — by building almost everything else, too.
Pizza-box kick drums. Dumpster snares. Kits made from parts nobody else would have bothered picking up. If you haven’t come across him yet, you are in for a good evening.
We keep this page updated with the latest rdavidr news, so check back.
Who is rdavidr?
David is based in Richmond, Virginia, and has been posting to YouTube since 2011. What separates him from the rest of drum YouTube is not his playing — although he plays perfectly well — it is that he is a genuine tradesman.
He builds. He turns wood, he cuts metal, he refinishes shells, and he takes second-hand gear that everyone else has written off and turns it into something you actually want.
That combination is rare. Most drum channels can only tell you what to buy. David can tell you what to make.
rdavidr on YouTube
The channel has grown a long way since we first wrote about it. It now sits at roughly 380,000 subscribers and 93 million views across around 350 videos — up from 220,000 subscribers and 47 million views when this page was first published.
The content splits roughly three ways:
- Drum hacks — small, cheap fixes for problems every drummer has.
- Builds and restorations — full kits, snares and stands made or rescued from scratch.
- “Can this be made to sound good?” — the challenge videos, where the answer is usually yes and always entertaining.
Why not make a pizza kick drum?
And if you are after hacks for your own kit, start here:
Our top pick from rdavidr
It is hard to pick just one. After much debate it still has to be the video where David and Stephen Taylor took a kids’ drum set and tried to make it sound good.
Haven’t we all wondered whether one of those cheap kids’ kits could be made to sound decent? If anyone is capable of it, it is rdavidr.
What kit does rdavidr play?
This is the fun part. Unlike most content creators, David does not really have a kit — he has a rotating cast of them, which is half the appeal of the channel. You never know what you are going to see.
A few things do stay constant:
- Sticks — Vic Firth. He joined the Vic Firth family as a drum set artist, and his stick of choice is the 2B.
- Heads — Remo, across the board.
- Kit — a Tama Imperialstar has done plenty of service on the channel.
- Snares — a rotating collection with better stories than most drummers’ entire setups: a 6.5”x14” Ludwig Acrolite found in a Goodwill, a Ludwig piccolo pulled out of a dumpster, and a “frankensnare” built around a Rogers Dynasonic bought on eBay.
- Damping — Moongel, like the rest of us.
The configuration is usually the same underneath all that: a four-piece — kick, snare, rack tom, floor tom — with hi-hats, a ride and a couple of crashes.
If you want a properly documented gear history for a drummer, that is what the Rig Vault is for. David is the exception that proves the rule: nobody could keep up with him.
Where can I find rdavidr?
He is on most platforms. Go and have a look:
Final thoughts
David Raouf makes some of the best drumming content anywhere, and he has been doing it for well over a decade now without repeating himself. That is the hard bit.
More than that, his videos leave you wanting to make something rather than buy something — which, given how much drum content exists purely to sell you gear, is genuinely refreshing.
If you like the builder-creator end of drum YouTube, try ZackGrooves next for the comedy side of it.
Do you have a favourite drummer we should check out? Let us know in the comments below.