Former Denver Symphony Orchestra timpanist Walter Light, who built a custom set of drums for himself, founded the company in 1950 when his colleagues began asking him to build timpani for them.
Since every drum was custom-built, the buyer was able to choose from different bowl shapes with different timbral properties and make any desired modifications to the frames of the drums.
For example, European and North American timpanists set their drums up in different orders.
The pedals have to be on the opposite sides of the drums in each of the setups.
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