What is a Stave Drum?
A "stave" drum is a drum made of solid hardwood sections that are edge-glued. This process is similar to the construction of a barrel, where sections of wood are cut with specific angles and curves, allowing a round cylinder to be produced once it is glued together and sanded smooth.

How are Stave Drums Better?
This method is far superior than that of plywood drum shells or steam bent shells because the staves are solid -- no layers or stress from dry bending or steam bending, and very little glue. This technique provides phenomenal strength and rigidity while maintaining the tone and response of a solid wood shell.
The vertical grain bearding edges which conduct vibration, resonance and sound through the shell far better than any other shell configuration. This method ensures a high quality of wood in contact with the drum head as hundreds of square inches of glue are eliminated from the process. We all know that glue is a dead component, it makes no sound at all. Solid wood allows us to lower the amount of glue used to build a drum shell and raise the wood content resulting in a truer, richer, and more melodic sounding drum.

About "Steam-Bent" or "One Ply" Drum Shells:
Often called "solid wood" or "one-ply" (although not a true solid); "One-ply" or "steam-bent" drum shells use a single piece of hardwood with reinforcement rings on the inside edges of the shell. The wood ply is heated to a very high temperature, and bent into a round shape, then placed in a form to cool and cure. It is then glued and machined to produce a cylinder. Of course, the introduction of moisture as steam, along with the bending process, imposes great stress on the wood. This process makes the use of glue-in reinforcement rings necessary to maintain roundness, as the wood will always want to straighten out and return to its original straightness. Glued -in reinforcement rings also raise the pitch of the drum shell. Because one-ply (solid) drum shells use considerably less glue than ply drum shells, they resonate more freely and produce better, purer tones than ply shells BUT not nearly as pure and direct as solid hardwood stave drum shells.