Wisconsin drum builder turns old kits into playable art

Joshua Breslow is turning old drum kits into something that can still hit hard on stage and look unlike anything in a catalog. At Breslow Drum Company in Franklin, Wisconsin, he works at the overlap of instrument building and visual art, where a used kit becomes a one-of-a-kind object with a second life.

A kit that has to sound right and look right

Breslow’s calling card is simple to name and hard to fake: he upcycles old or used drum kits into fully playable works of art. That matters because the goal is not decoration alone. The drums still have to function as instruments, which means the rebuild has to respect both the way a kit feels under the sticks and the way it reads on a stage.

That dual demand is what makes the work distinct. A drum set is already a visual centerpiece in a room, and Breslow leans into that reality by making the look part of the instrument’s identity instead of an afterthought. The result is a kit that can serve a musical job and still stand on its own as a sculptural object.

What restoration-plus-customization gives players

The appeal of Breslow’s approach is that it treats worn gear as raw material, not junk. Instead of sending old shells and hardware to the back of a storage room or the scrap pile, he gives them a new role with new visual life. For drummers, that opens a different path than buying something fresh from a showroom floor.

A rebuilt kit can carry more personality than an off-the-rack set because it starts from what already exists and then becomes something singular. That originality is part of the point, especially for players who want an instrument that reflects their sound and their presence on stage. Breslow’s kits are not museum pieces. They are made to be seen in live performance, and local concertgoers may already have spotted them on stage without realizing they were looking at repurposed gear.

That live-use angle separates his work from simple display art. The finishes are colorful, but the purpose stays musical. In practice, that means the rebuild has to hold together as a working drum kit while still delivering the visual punch that makes it memorable from the back of a club or the middle of a crowded room.

Why the Franklin setting matters

Franklin gives this story a local scale without making it small. The U.S. Census Bureau lists the city’s April 1, 2020 population at 36,816, and its July 1, 2025 estimate at 36,687. That is large enough to support a real community of players, gigging musicians, and concertgoers who can notice a handmade kit when one shows up on a stage.

The business also sits in Milwaukee County, which places it inside a broader metro area with plenty of working drummers, rehearsal spaces, and live-music rooms. In that setting, Breslow’s one-of-a-kind kits make sense as practical gear first and art object second. They answer a familiar drummer’s problem: what do you do with old drums that still have life in them but no longer feel worth keeping as-is?

A reuse story that fits Wisconsin

Breslow’s work also lands in a state with a long recycling history. Wisconsin’s solid waste reduction, recovery and recycling law was enacted in 1990, when only about 17% of municipal solid waste was recycled. By the end of 2004, that figure had climbed to 32%, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says recycling markets are expanding and creating jobs in the state.

That background gives the drum builds a bigger frame. Upcycling a kit does not just solve an individual musician’s storage problem. It reflects a broader Wisconsin habit of reducing waste, reusing materials, and finding value in things that might otherwise be discarded. Breslow’s drums sit comfortably inside that culture because they turn existing material into something useful, visible, and still alive in performance.

How the wider drum world is moving

Breslow is not operating in a vacuum. Pearl Drums says acoustic drums are primarily crafted from wood, and it has stressed that sustainability is increasingly important in drum manufacturing. The company has also pointed to eco-minded initiatives that include recycled-material drum shells and other sustainability efforts.

That matters because it shows Breslow’s reuse-first approach is part of a wider shift in how drum makers and players think about materials. The conversation is no longer only about finish colors, shell counts, or signature badges. It is also about longevity, resource use, and how much value can be extracted from what already exists. Breslow’s kits make that idea visible in a way drummers can recognize immediately.

A kit pulled back from neglect and turned into playable art solves more than one problem at once. It keeps usable gear in circulation, gives a player a distinctive stage identity, and proves that old drums do not have to wait for the landfill or the back of a closet to matter again.