This past July 30th 2014 I had a unique opportunity to take a step back into Gretsch Company history. As a matter of fact, I actually took several hundred steps, as I walked the streets of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where the company got its start. Along the way I visited several sites that mark the evolution of the company from its inception in 1883 through 1969, some seven decades later. Best of all, I had the pleasure of being joined by more than twenty drummers who are fans of Gretsch drums and their fascinating history. Since these drummers were all from the New York area, the information offered in our “Brooklyn Walking Tour” was all the more personal for them.
Read moreRick Latham's Polish Snare Drum
We got this question from Rick Latham as he was ending his summer tour in Europe.Can any of you help us out here? - NSMD: Hi George, Greetings brother from the Black Forest of Germany! Hope you are doing well. I'm nearing the end of a three month tour here in Europe - Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Switzerland... all great! I ran across this drum in a drum shop in Poznan, Poland and the guys are curious if it's anything cool - or maybe a bastardized-something-weird? Ha! I told them if anyone would know, it would be you - so give it your best shot.
Read more1960s Ludwig Downbeat Set
The drum set from my collection that I want to feature this month is a 1960s Ludwig Downbeat Set in sparkling pink champagne pearl. Downbeat sets began in 1959. It is one of my all time favorite kits. I really love these drums for many reasons. Their sizes are one reason I love them. These are the size drums Ringo Starr played on the earlier Ed Sullivan shows. The Bass drum is 20"X14", the floor tom is 14"X14" and the mounted tom is 12''X8". Ringo referred to the Downbeat sets he owned as the "mini" kits. I used to have a hard time telling if a kit was a Downbeat set in photos, but I learned to count the bass drum T- rods. The Downbeat set has 8 lugs and the 22"X14" Super Classics have 10 lugs. Another way to tell is to look at the lugs on the mounted tom. The space is greater between the top and bottom lugs on the 12'' tom than the space on the 13" tom. The 13" tom used on the Super Classics has larger lugs, so the space between them is smaller.
Read moreDW "Buddy Rich" Drum Set
This is a Drum Workshop set that I purchased March of 1983 that was custom built for Buddy Rich in August 1982. He used it for the beginning of the 1983 tour and played them until he had the heart attack when he was in Ann Arbor Michigan. It was ordered and built to his specifications through Joe Cusatis at the modern drum shop in NYC. He wanted the Slingerland TDR throw off on the snare, He wanted Pearl spurs and a Ludwig rail/banana mount for the tom tom. He also wanted Ludwig cymbal holders for the bass drum. The rest of the set is DW but is wrapped in Ludwig white marine pearl. It has the BR on the front bass drum head and "Buddy Rich Fragile" on the cases.
Read more1925 Ludwig & Ludwig Triumphal #9
This drum is definitely a 1920s Ludwig & Ludwig gold plated /engraved Triumphal Model. I did notice a few minor differences as compared to my Triumphal... 1. This drum has a 5-petal rose engraving as compared to my drum that has a 6-petal rose engraving... 2. This drum has the “Ludwig Chicago” in the same panel as the P-338 strainer as compared to my drum where the “Ludwig Chicago” is located 2 panels to the left of the strainer. Nothing earth shattering but interesting enough for me to pursue it further, ergo; was this a different engraver than my drum?
Read moreThe WWII Collection
"Here are a couple of pics of the World War II collection. The L&L is completely restored. The 1st version WFL (with the rolling bomber snare) werepurchased new, played for a year at home and put in the closet for 70+ years - they still have the original Calf heads on them. I am the 2nd owner. A BDP Rollin Bomber kit with a very rare 10" off set lug tom. I am the second owner as well. At the show I will also have a 1st version (Cecil Stupe design) WFL internal tune kit in WMP that I am restoring."
Read more1927-32 L&L DeLuxe Super Snare
Here’s another snare drum to enter the collection. I got this drum in May from a very nice gentleman named Mark Hamon. For those of you that are old Not So Modern Drummer subscribers you will recognize Mark as the photographer of all of those great NSMD cover shots. A thank you goes out to Bill Wanser for helping me to date this drum.
Read more1941 Leedy Autographs of the Stars
Here’s a snare drum that I have been looking for since my early days of collecting...thank you Ebay! This one wasn’t cheap but I wanted it so here we are. A little bit of history here in that the date stamp on this drum is 4112 (December 1941)...Pearl Harbor, WWII and The War Powers Act (Dec. 18, 1941) which caused the 10% Law that proved to be a pretty sorrowful era in the history of American made drums. It looks like this snare drum made the cut and was obviously built just before the “10% Law” manufacturing restrictions were enacted.
Read more1970s Camco Drum Set
Lately I have been bitten by the Camco bug. You might have been bitten by that bug yourself. There has been a rise in interest in these wonderful drums in recent times and I started wanting to own a Camco kit. I read the article about Camco drums here in the magazine with great interest. In the article the writer called them the "Stradivarius" of vintage drums. I have always thought they looked great, and wanted to own a set, so I finally made it a point to acquired a set for my collection. All the hype about these fine drums is true. They are very well built and sound fantastic. I think the first time I noticed them was when Dennis Wilson played a blue moire Camco set with the Beach Boys.
Read moreRogers Drums at Eastman School of Music
In 1962 I was asked to present a clinic with Louie Bellson at a local hotel in Rochester, NY. I was teaching at the Eastman School of Music and a local music store – Music Lover’s - was sponsoring the event. Ben Strauss of Rogers Drums contacted me and the date was set for November 7, 1962. Louie did the drum set and I did the classical snare drum. Since I also played drum set Louie and I traded fours etc. It was also at this time that I was teaching Steve Gadd and he was in the audience. I told Louie that he should hear this kid play. Louie invited him to the stage and Steve blew Louie away. It was at this moment that Steve, Louie and I became good friends for life.
Read moreThe Levon Helm Snare Drum
So the drum was given to Levon by Ringo, clearly played and signed by Levon to the son of another tremendously influential drummer, Richie Hayward. Four degrees of separation, perhaps? I was happy to win the auction, securing both drum for its history and the ability to help Seve in my own small way.
Read more1929-32 Leedy Broadway Dual (1st Gen)
Here’s a snare drum that I purchased at the 2014 Chicago Show from Brian Drugan of Drugan’s Drums. First generation Leedy Duals are fairly scarce, nothing earth shattering here but this drum did have something cool that I’ve never seen or heard of before.
Read moreA Good Rattling Instrument
Maker: Abner D. StevensCirca: Late 1790’s-Early 1800’s Dimensions: 14.5”(h) x 16.5”(dia.)
As hostilities with England became a not too distant memory, the inhabitants of the new American Nation now had the task of rebuilding not only the physical damage caused by no less than seven years of a very personal war, but had an entire economy to repair as well. Born in a small New England town in 1770, a young and industrious Abner D. Stevens started making drums at his shop in Hancock, Massachusetts, in 1794 as his principle means of income.
Read more1950s Leedy & Ludwig Broadway Set
I went in to the lovely home of the owner of this set. He is in his 80s, and after a few minutes of greeting I was taken to the set. It wasn't set up, but I was encouraged to set them up and play on them or whatever I wanted to do. I just enjoyed looking at everything. There was also a wonderful cymbal set included, some of them were "K" Zildjians. There were stands, other hardware, and a box full of great old percussion "stuff." After I had looked it all over, I sat down with the man and enjoyed a long talk with him. He has a life filled with great experiences and I'm glad I got to hear some of them. If I had left without the drums and only got to talk to this guy, I would still be richer from the experience.
Read more1939-41 Leedy Broadway Standard "T-Bird" Engraved Snare
This was an easy one but I do have a restoration tip to pass along. This is purely personal but maybe a few restorers out there will find this useful. If you notice on all of my restorations you will see “aged” snare cord. I think that it looks out of place to have brand new white snare cord on an 85 year old drum; functionally it’s no problem, visually it drives me nuts. Here are two tips for you... 1. I use Yamaha snare cord model SNC-10 but before installing the snares I run the cords through a used (blackened) piece of Cape Cod Polishing Cloth, this darkens (antiques) the white cord and in my opinion makes it more realistic looking... 2. I just discovered Puresound makes model MS4 (dark brown brained line). This is what I used on the drum in this article.
Read moreJuly 2014 - Red Headed Step Children
But what about all the vintage and rare drums that have been modified with extra holes, unoriginal parts etc.? What about those red headed bastard stepchildren?
It is my theory that they will become more and more desirable as the herd is thinned over the coming decades. What made me realize this was one particular seller at the Chicago Drum Show who asked me if there were going to be a lot of “hipsters” at my Nashville Drum Show. He said that in Austin, where there are hundreds and hundreds of working drummers in that busy music scene, they are buying “player" vintage kits and snares, not the collector level drums. They are buying them for the sound, not the collectability. It made me realize just how much the vintage drum world has grown and how the less than perfect old drums need to be preserved too.
Read more1940s Restored Radio Kings
We found Joe Ciucci on Facebook a few months ago sharing pictures of his grandfather's one-owner 1940s Slingerland Radio Kings. These drums were masterfully restored by ATL Drum Collective in Atlanta, GA. We're going to run a feature article and interview with Joe in the coming months, stay tuned for more information and history, pictures of the full kit, and audio/video too!
Zickos Clear Cast Acrylic Drums
The first company to ever produce clear cast acrylic drums, Zickos nearly had Keith Moon as an endorser. Apparently, he did not like the sound of the drums. He was known to have played them on just a handful of gigs.
http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/drums/drumszickos.html
Noble & Cooley 1986 SS Classic
Single ply maple shell and maple reinforcing rings, honey maple finish, all brass N&C proprietary hardware. One of the first modern Noble & Cooleys. Notice the hex lug in the middle. This was moved to the lower "acoustical node" position soon after this model. I believe that this model with the hex lug in the middle is superior in tone since the middle of the shell is the node of the fundamental pitch just as the center of a drum head is the most prominent node. From the George Lawrence collection.
Pre-WWII Slingerland Mystery Drum
Can you identify this drum? If you've got some info, leave us a comment below.