Inspired by Santana, Petaluma carpenter turns wood into congas

Peter Musser knows he isn’t always the easiest person to get in touch with.

“I am an old guy, and it takes a long time to build these drums, so I don’t end up with a lot of time to mess around with stuff like websites and advertising,” he said, after a somewhat lengthy time responding to an interview request. “When I come in from a day in the shop, I’m usually pretty whipped,” added the self-taught craftsman who has spent the last 15 years making and selling conga drums through his homegrown business, PM Percussion. Musser generally thinks of himself as a factory, not a store. “What I do sells itself,” he said, “and luckily, that’s usually been enough.”

Born and raised in the Sunset District in San Francisco, Musser grew up just blocks away from the center of the city’s famous counter-culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“From my house, I could hear the drumming coming out of Golden Gate Park, and I would go play with those guys,” he said. “And then there were the guys in Dolores Park who were the sons and grandsons of great players, and I wouldn’t even think to try to play with them. But I’d go and just listen.”

Musser was a clarinetist until an accident at 15 resulted in a severed finger. Though successfully reattached, the injury ended any hopes of a professional career.

“There’s five or six keys you really need that finger for, and mine is only about 80% functional,” he pointed out.

Drums gave him a way back into music.

“I first heard the band Santana at a friend’s house and that was it,” he said. “I started looking for a conga that week, and I’ve been playing percussion ever since.”

Even so, life as a drummer wasn’t really in the cards either.

“It’s a discipline thing, and a heritage thing,” Musser explained. “Most of the guys who are out there who are great grew up playing their whole lives. And you need discipline if you don’t have that legacy, and I just didn’t have that discipline for playing. But I did have it for carpentry, which is how I’ve always made my living.”

When he moved to Petaluma 38 years ago, everything just fell into place.

“I bought this old house that had been built in the 1880s, and while I was fixing it up I put a shop in the back yard and that’s when I started building drums in earnest,” he said.

Musser specializes in both the restoration of historic instruments, and building new ones on commission.

“I’m just a carpenter,” he emphasized. “I do the same work I did when I was fixing up houses.”

That said, Musser conceded that there’s a lot more to building drums than most people think.

“With an instrument that’s going to be played in front of an audience, everything has to be just so,” he pointed out. “I have been lucky enough to work on a lot of historical instruments, taking them apart and putting them together. And you wouldn’t think there’s a lot to a drum, but there is. Every little bit contributes to the sound. Most people think all that matters is the wood, the skin, the metal ‒ but how you raise the belly, for instance, changes how the sound leaves the skin and goes down into the shell.”

And that’s just one example.

“Over the years, I experimented with this or that and that’s how I got where I am,” he said.

PM Percussion has always been a journey for Musser.

“I started this up knowing I was learning, and I’m still learning,” he acknowledged, adding that restoring antique instruments has been particularly edifying. “The difference between restoring furniture and restoring drums is that somebody is going to be hitting these things with great enthusiasm. When you restore a 400-year-old sideboard, generally speaking, people are going to stand five feet away and admire it. But when you restore an old drum for a musician, you’re basically putting a fighter back into the ring.”

The real learning curve, he admitted, has come in finding ways to keep his passion sustainable.

“For the last 15 years, every drum I’ve built was sold before I started making it, and what I’m aiming at now is to actually get ahead of the need with production. But of course, if somebody calls me and says, ‘Build me a set of drums,’ I’ll jump on it.”

These days, Musser says his website is probably the best place to see his work, but his phone number posted there is still the best way to reach him. Getting word out about the services he offers remains a challenge, but Musser’s confidence is keeping him in the game while facing the challenges confronting any one-man band.

“I think the drums I build are some of the best out there,” he said, “and if I didn’t think that I wouldn’t be able to do it. And I’m doing it.”

To see more of Musser’s work and the types of services he offers, visit pmpercussion.com.