Basix Musical Instruments is a joint venture between the Chinese manufacturer represented by manager Yan Bin, the German GEWA company and the American Jack Westheimer, a long time friend of GEWA. The Basix plant is located in Bazhou, a suburb of the city of Tianjin and approximately a 3 hours drive from Beijing. In this countryside industries haven't settled a lot therefore Basix is a well received exception to the residents, more than 500 people have found a job there. A good, save, well paid job is not the standard in China, not for nothing the major of Bazhou village named the road to our plant officially as “Basix Road”. We are really proud of that. HISTORY Yan Bin manufactured drums since a governmental assignment in the year 1980. In these days one of the first western bands was touring China; on their rider a drum kit was listed. As there was no drum kit available in entire China the organizers gratefully accepted the donation of the Japanese Yamaha company and used their kit. This kit toured China afterwards until the administration decided to run an own drum production under communistic order. In this production Yan Bin was involved and with him his today’s factory manager. But the whole thing wasn't very effective, so Yan Bin determined in 1993 to run his own factory. 1999 he attended the Namm Show in Los Angeles for the first time as an exhibitor, as two years before they had already supplied SAM ASH in the US with OEM drum kits. At this show Stefan Hess of GEWA acquainted Yan Bin. With a first visit in 2000 Stefan Hess rearranged the production organisation and emphasised on a continuously improvement of the hardware, shell production and finishes. The idea to give the beginner studying the basics of the instrument a reasonable, well manufactured drum kit at a good price was born several years before. This is where the name BASIX comes from. In the first two years the workshop was located within the Tianjin city borders, but after that time the capacities were exhausted. Basix would need a new plant and it was found in Bazhou. There the general conditions were good, enough space for further expansion was available – nothing blocked the way. In 2002 the joint venture contract was composed and distribution rights were fixed; Westheimer Cooperation handles the American continent and GEWA runs Europe and the rest of the world ever since. Yan Bin and his partner Isabella Wei are running the business in China keeping daily contact to their two distributors. Product development and designing new products is thoroughly GEWA’s business though, means it’s with Stefan Hess and Winfried Holl acting from Germany but visiting the plant in China on a frequently basis. The production sequences are constantly optimized inside the plant to improve the entire manufacturing process further and to increase efficiency. Birch is the wood that’s used the most; it is supplied by a vendor of northern China. Nevertheless we run cooperation with a Chinese wood mill. This opens new expanding opportunities and makes us more flexible in the production process. Due to the cooperation with GEWA the quality standards improve constantly and in this field the efforts are focused continuously. Out of these efforts a briefing room was established and the staffs get weekly briefings; special skilled foreman are chosen to run quality checks, which they do very meticulously. In Bazhou all shells and hardware are produced, only the chroming and die-casting processes are outsourced due to confined space. All the other processes are run inside the Bazhou plant. 80% of the heads are supplied by REMO. Only the very cheap kits are equipped with Chinese heads. PRODUCTION The production sequence starts off with the selection of the plywood. The sheets are sorted to covered and lacquered drum kits. After that, the wood is cut, glued and is laminated in hot presses. One will find a few presses more than usual in Bazhou, this is to meet the demands of the “hot season”. This is also the case in other working areas. After pressing, the shells are cut to length, and then the shell is ready to be sanded, stained, lacquered and polished. This is hands-on work and all these workers are well trained, you can see that in quality of the finishes respectively the drum kits. The drilling of the lug holes and milling of the edges is done by CNC-machinery. In between all the working steps controlling is established to sort out substandard shells immediately. In the final assembly area the kits are equipped with shell hardware, the last inspection is made, and the drums are packed and made ready for dispatch. Hardware production is similar in terms of efficiency and amount of work. The incoming goods inspection consumes a big space and literally each part passes the hands of the inspectors prior to production. A lot of machines are used here also, but hands-on work dominates when it comes down to final assembly. Bazhou Basix Musical Instrument Co. Ltd, this is China at its best, with international relations we’re building up a company with visions. Our goal is to produce good low-budget-drums but we evolve into levels where drummers like Bernard “Pretty” Purdy or Danny Gottlieb play our drums at workshops and records. It might be an unusual way, but it’s also a good demonstration what our drums are capable of. Besides that these endorsees, especially Danny Gottlieb, are good contacts when it comes down to product improvement. The latest example is the V6 pedal; a smashing pedal at an astonishing price. We hired a guy of the AUDI-tuning company ABT to develop the footboard. The result speaks for itself and it looks more expensive than it is. Stay tuned.
