The Summer is here, and the time is right for "dancing in the street," or staying inside where the air conditioner is on. It's so hot here in Georgia, my home state, that we celebrate the inventor of the air conditioner, Willis Carrier's birthday. Seriously, it's hot in the south, but people still have yard sales where drums are sometimes found. It's hard to believe in this E-Bay age that a drum like this Leedy Broadway parallel was sold at a yard sale, but that's the story I got. My friend, Bill Pace called me about this drum and told me he had bought it at a yard sale. It was in a black cardboard case and the owners sold it to him for a very fair price. Bill calls me from time to time to offer me some of the drums he finds. He is a great drum finder. He goes out on a mission looking for them. He hits every pawn shop and second hand store in a town, and he asks people if they know anyone in town that plays drums. He calls them to search out contacts. He checks out local news and sale papers and calls all the folks in there that have musical instruments for sale. He usually ends up buying drums in every little town. Sometimes he cleans them up for E-Bay and sometimes he just turns them to people like me. If you have ever bought a drum from Bill please leave a comment. I am adding a picture of Bill and his beloved friend Falecia with my photos.
This is an awesome drum find. It is really amazing to find a survivor drum like this in original unmolested condition. Everything is there. The tension rods, washers, even the snare wires are original. This is truly a work of percussion art. It is a 1930s black nickle over brass 6.5"X14" engraved shell Leedy Broadway parallel with gold plated engraved hoops and hardware. I can't even imagine how beautiful this drum must have been when it was brand new almost 90 years ago. It must have been a treasure to the owner of such a fine instrument. The shell is the one piece brass shell that Ludwig used in the 30s. The lugs on this drum are amazingly modern. Leedy was so ahead of the times. While the other drums of this era had threaded tube or casing lugs, Leedy had self aligning inserts and springs. The quality is on such a high level it's hard to believe. The parallel strainer still works perfectly with no loose motion. The internal mute works great. The drum actually does sound fantastic. I changed the calf heads that were on it for some new old stock ones I had on hand and tuned that old girl up tight. It really could be played with any orchestra in concert tonight.