Andries Visser on Dromers & Doeners: The Story Behind the T-Top Cajon

Playing drums is one thing. Learning to really hear them is another. In a recent interview on the South African podcast Dromers & Doeners, AV Box founder Andries Visser sat down for an hour-long conversation about his life behind the kit, the hundreds of drummers he has taught, and the gig that led him to invent the T-Top cajon. Here are the highlights.

Watch the full Andries Visser interview

Short on time? Watch the 10-minute clip in The T-Top Story: Why Andries Visser Built a New Kind of Cajon.

From Hennenman to the drum kit

Andries grew up in Hennenman, a small town in the Free State. He saw a drum kit for the first time in church in 1984, had his first lesson that Tuesday and played in church the very next Sunday. He was still so small that he could not see over the drums. From then on he and his brother, a guitarist, played all day, every day, loud enough that the police were regular visitors at their house.

The night he learned to hear his drums

In 1992, Integrity’s praise and worship team came to South Africa with Ron Kenoly and played at Rhema in Johannesburg. In the break, the teenage Andries walked straight up to the drummer, Carl Albrecht, and asked how he got his drums to sound so good. Carl gave him a quick rundown on tuning toms and the bass drum.

Andries went home and tuned his kit that same night. The next day he and his brother jammed for hours and could not stop playing, because the kit suddenly sounded incredible. That lesson in listening to tone, response and detail stayed with him, first as a drummer and later as an instrument maker.

Touring the world

After studying at Technikon Pretoria (now Tshwane University of Technology) and further training with a teacher who changed the way he thinks about drums and music, Andries played in the Rhema orchestra and recorded an album in Cape Town. The backing vocalists on that album were from the group Khanyisa, and they invited him on tour. Six weeks later he was rehearsing in Nashville.

Three years with Khanyisa meant 170 to 180 shows a year, from small churches and school halls to outdoor events and festivals across the USA, the UK, the Netherlands and Slovakia. In Nashville he also met drummer Chester Thompson and recorded rehearsals on cassette so he could learn from every one.

I think a big part of really mastering an instrument is to be like a sponge and take everything in.

Andries Visser (translated from Afrikaans)

Teaching hundreds of drummers

Back home, Andries started Groove Regulators in 2003 with four students. Full-time students practised five to eight hours a day, and every year ended with a showcase concert backed by professional musicians, something that did not exist in South Africa at the time. With a coastal school in Jeffreys Bay added later, just over 600 students have come through the programme.

Along the way he recorded on more than 300 albums and projects, starting in 1989, and played with artists such as Riana Nel and Louis Brittz. He still teaches one-on-one: see drum lessons with Andries.

I never really wanted to be the top drummer for everything and everyone. I just love to play.

Andries Visser (translated from Afrikaans)

How a gig in Louis Trichardt became the T-Top

The T-Top started with a problem. Andries was booked to play an acoustic set with Louis Brittz in Louis Trichardt in the middle of winter, and he needed a cajon. He could not find one to borrow in time, so he watched a few YouTube videos, bought wood and built a box himself.

He had played congas and bongos for years, but never a box cajon. Halfway through the show his fingers were red and swollen, and in the break he ran to the ladies selling pancakes outside and plunged his hands into their ice bucket of cold drinks, in the middle of winter. After the show a farmer walked up and asked whether he really got all those sounds out of that box, then told his wife to take Andries’ number because they wanted to buy the drum. That was the start of the business.

From a box to the T-Top cajon

After building 60 to 70 box cajons and hearing good and bad feedback from musicians, Andries felt he was reinventing the wheel and almost sold his tools. Then he looked at one of the boxes and wondered how it would feel on your lap. That question became the T shape, rounded so that it sits comfortably on your legs.

The first version, with a screwed-on top, sounded boxy. His old teacher was not impressed, and Andries ended up using it as a table to eat KFC in the car. An engineer friend modelled the design in Fusion 360, the body was glued instead of screwed, and the veneer was glued down. That took the drum from about 83dB to around 110dB of internal sound pressure, with far more low end and more than 20 different tones across the surface.

A friend then designed the internal microphone, and after many failed attempts they had a mic that handles up to 120dB. Andries registered the T-Top as a patent in April 2019, and when lockdown came, churches that moved their services online were among its first big supporters.

A drum for everyone

Because you play the T-Top on your lap, children from about three years old can play it with their feet tucked underneath. It weighs under 5kg, sets up in under five minutes and is plug and play. Add a tambourine on one foot and a shaker in one hand, and you have almost a whole drum kit in front of you.

Andries’ advice for young drummers

• Get a good teacher. It is the first step.
• Practise as much as you can and spend as much time as possible on your craft.
• Play with musicians who are better than you, and build long-term relationships with them.
• Structure your practice: reading, rudiments such as single strokes, double strokes and paradiddles, the same exercises with your feet, cross rhythms, and then at least half an hour playing along with music.
• Repeat it every day.

Repetition is really the key to success.

Andries Visser (translated from Afrikaans)

On gear, he keeps it simple: the top models of every brand are incredible, so it comes down to your skill and how you tune and play.

Play the T-Top yourself

Every T-Top is still handmade to order by Andries, with a 14 working day build time. Choose your veneer in the T-Top cajon range, get the drum, internal mic and padded bag together in the Full Combo, or learn to play it properly with the online T-Top Course taught by Andries. Already have a cajon that needs work? We also do cajon repairs and mic fittings.