Greetings to all and happy Spring. We are still having cold weather in the south and I know many of you are also still having cold weather as well. Soon the warmer weather will be here and then turn to extreme heat, so I am not complaining about the remaining cold weather. It is almost Chicago Drum Show time as I write this article. The Big show might have already come and gone by the time this gets posted, but it is about a month away as I write, so I am getting all excited. This year's show promises to be a great one. If you love vintage and custom drums, and have never been to the show, you owe it to yourself to go check it out. It would be great to see many of you there and I'm sure you would enjoy it immensely.
I have been working on a delightful drum set over the past few days. I bought these from my friend Butch. He had a room full of great vintage drums that needed to be cleared out. I went over to help him and left with five sets. He still had a room full, but that was all I could get into my SUV and my money ran out as well. This set is a four piece 1954 Leedy and Ludwig set. The wrap color is sparkling blue. The bass drum is a very handy 20X14, the ride tom that mounts to the bass drum rim is a 12X8, and the floor tom is a nice big sounding 16X16. The snare is so beautiful and is a 14X5 matching snare with the offset lugs. This set has some issues, but it looks very nice and they also sound very good. The floor tom is the real story with this set. I don't know the history concerning this set first hand, so I am going to put forth a guess as to why the floor tom is a matching Slingerland made Leedy drum. We all know that Bud Slingerland bought Leedy from Conn at the same time William F. Ludwig bought the Ludwig brand from Conn. This was in the mid 1950s. I believe someone had purchased this Leedy and Ludwig set in 1954 as a three piece set. That was not uncommon at all in those days. He later went back to the music store, maybe in 1956 and asked if he could purchase a matching floor tom for his set. By this time Slingerland was able to fill the order for the store to sell to the customer. It is a beauty. It has a sweet Slingerland shell with small Leedy lugs, Slingerland push button legs, mute, and stick saver rims. The sparkling blue is a perfect match. I'm sure the customer was delighted.