One of the things that has always appealed to me about vintage drums is the flashy look of the drums themselves. When I started playing drums in the summer of 1982, the popular colors of the day were finishes like jade green, wine red, white, black and mirror chrome. There were certainly other colors too but the bulk of new drums that I remember seeing were in one of those colors or something similar and they were all in a solid color. While colors like that are liked by many and they certainly have their place, I was always drawn to flashy colors that stood out. Bright sparkles, classic marine pearls or some trippy psychedelic finish are what caught my eye. Maybe it’s because in my ordinary life I am not all that flashy but when I hit the stage, I want my drums to look really good and stand out under the bright lights. The cherry on top to a set of drums to me? A matching canister throne.
I was unaware of canister thrones until I started collecting drums around the summer of 1990. I was fortunate to see Buddy Rich in 1984 when I was 13, but I was far enough back that I didn’t have a good view of what he was sitting on. By the time I started collecting, I was noticing in pictures that guys like Buddy Rich, Joe Morello and even Mitch Mitchell were sitting on a seat that matched their drums. I also found my first Ludwig catalog the following year which was from 1967. I spent a lot of time looking through the pages and saw that the canister throne was listed near the back. I knew I had to have one but my biggest concern was whether or not the height was going to be comfortable for me. I like my drums to look really cool but in the grand scheme of things, functionality has to come first.
It all started happening when I started regularly playing out in my early 20’s. By this time I already had a couple of vintage 60’s Ludwig sets and inevitably someone on a break would ask me about my drums. On one such gig I was approached by an older gentleman that told me he had a vintage Ludwig set that he used for practice and messing around. He was very proud of them and said he lived around the corner. He asked if I wanted to see them when I was done and as I was still learning and was eager to see anything I could, I said yes. He could not tell me the color but described it as a greyish swirl kind of thing when we chatted on my break. When I saw the set in his living room I noticed immediately that he had a 60’s Oyster Black set of Ludwig drums. They were a mix of super classic drums and club date drums. The 20” bass drum, six lug Pioneer snare and 12” tom were club dates. The other 12” tom and 16” floor tom were super classic series drums. How they got mixed together I don’t know. What caught my attention minutes later was a matching Oyster Black canister throne sitting on the other side of the room against the wall. Wow! Would you look at that, was all I could say as I looked at it. It looked unused and the condition was immaculate. I asked the guy why he wasn’t using it and he said that he hated it because he could not adjust it. I asked if he would be willing to sell it and after he thought for a minute, agreed to do so. I also tried to get the matching snare drum but he was not giving that up.
The first thing I did when I got that throne home was check the height against the seat I was using. I am fairly short and like to sit high kind of like Ringo does. Putting the canister throne next to my seat looked almost identical height wise. I used that throne for several years even though I did not own any Oyster Black Ludwig drums. I eventually found a nice 60’s Oyster Black set in the late 90’s before the prices went crazy and I still have that set as well as that throne. Over the years I always kept my eye out for them and have probably had in the neighborhood of 11-12 thrones though not all at one time. I even ordered two classic maple sets in the early 2000’s and ordered them with canister thrones as that was still a Ludwig option. The last Ludwig set that I ordered was in 2012 as I wanted it to be a set that would be used for many years. Without hesitation I ordered a canister throne and asked my dealer if Ludwig could put a blue/olive badge on it. I ordered the whole set with those badges in Champagne Sparkle as I wanted the set to have an early 70’s vibe. Little did I know but the throne I got turned out to be the last one Ludwig ever made. Apparently the shells for them were outsourced and the company that supplied them went out of business. Since Ludwig still had shells on hand waiting for orders, they decided that once they were all used up, that was it.
According to my WFL/Ludwig catalogs, the Ludwig canister throne was invented around 1953 and it was touted as the sensational new “seat-case” as it was designed to hold traps and accessories. Other companies like Slingerland and Rogers made them too but I am not sure when Slingerland began to offer them as they were always in competition with the Ludwig family. The early WFL thrones I have seen have a metal ring at the top of the throne and nothing at the bottom. I don’t know why or when some got a bottom ring but by the 60’s, all canister thrones had a metal ring at the bottom like the top one for extra stability and looks. The typical size for one has always been 16”x24” tall but I have seen a few that were a bit taller in the shell or taller in the seat cushion. Most of them were outfitted with a badge too but the badges could be in strange locations. The majority of them I have seen from the 50’s and 60’s typically have the badge where the seam is. I have also seen the badge off-set from the seam while the thrones from the 70’s to 2012 have the badge on the opposite side from the seam. The shells were constructed like a drum shell with reinforcement rings and the interior was left unfinished. My 2004 Mod Orange canister throne has a grey painted interior from the factory, while the 2012 is back to an unpainted interior. I have never seen a date stamp in a canister throne either, however nothing is out of the realm of possibility. The catalogs stated that any pearl finish Ludwig offered could be had, though I have seen several over the years that were finished in natural maple. Mitch Mitchell had one with the 1968 natural maple set he used with Jimi Hendrix, which leads me to believe Ludwig would do whatever finish was available on a drum. Ludwig sold them with a carrying case too for ease of transport. I have seen some where someone drilled a handle on the side as often times, the cases for them were lost. I had a company custom make a case for me in the early 2000’s and it works great. One other interesting note is that Ludwig used the same picture of the canister throne taken for the 1953 WFL catalog right up until the 1975 Ludwig catalog. It wasn’t until the 1980 Ludwig catalog that Ludwig took a current picture of one!
Canister thrones may not be for everyone. In fact a lot of drummers don’t care for them much at all. I love them and find that they work perfectly for my needs. I can also store my wallet and coat in there during a gig as well as a few other necessities. They look really cool with my sets and I think it adds that nice extra added flair. I have been collecting pictures of them as I love seeing the different kinds Ludwig made. They are really cool to own if you can find one and currently I have four of them. I have the 1969 Oyster Black one that I found all those years ago, an original 1970 Mod Orange one, a 2004 Mod Orange reissue as well as my 2012 Champagne Sparkle.
Happy hunting!