Craviotto Drums founder and CEO, John “Johnny C” Craviotto was born to Italian-American parents (mother from Florence, father from Genoa) in San Francisco, CA. Johnny began playing drums at an early age and he started playing professionally as a teenager. In the 1970s, a young Johnny Craviotto started off his musical career as a professional drummer playing with artists such as
Arlo Guthrie,
Ry Cooder,
Moby Grape,
Neil Young, and
Buffy St. Marie. At this time, he had also become a collector of vintage drums and developed an interest in the work of early drum builders. Craviotto had the opportunity around 1979-80 to work in a boatyard with a master boat builder. As an apprentice and helper he began applying this technique to drum shells. So with the help of the master boat builder, Johnny began making one-ply drum shells. By 1984-85, Craviotto teamed up with Billy Gibson, drummer of
Huey Lewis & The News. They launched a drum company, Select Drum Company (later changed to “Solid”) Drum Company. Craviotto developed a steam-bending technique which led to a partnership with Don Lombardi of
DW Drums in 1993. For about a decade beginning in the 1990s, Craviotto’s snare drums were available as part of Drum Workshop's catalogs. Around 1999, Craviotto started a new venture, which was to build drums from ancient, old growth wood recovered from sunken timber. He launched a limited-edition series of solid-ply drums made from 600-year-old wood rescued from the bottom of Lake Superior. These drums were adorned with hoops engraved by engraver, John Aldridge – the “Lake Superior Timeless Timber series.” Several years later, these were followed up with the Lake Superior Timeless Timber birch series of drums. followed by The Lake Superior snare drum (1999). The logs were found by divers, who were searching for a treasure, and they were blocked by these logs. On July 15, 2016, John Angelo Craviotto died of cardiac arrest. == Collaboration with AK Drums Italy ==