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The first vintage & Custom Drum Magazine, since 1988
New England’s Premier Drum Show
Rick Smith presented another successful vintage and custom drum show at The Sphinx Shriners Center in Newington, Connecticut. This years’ featured clinician’s were Gregg Bissonette and Richie Morales.
Read moreYou’ll notice in this issue that there are many more links to DrumSellers.com, the new classifieds and forum for Not So Modern Drummer. I am incorporating drumsellers.com ads into this monthly email publication. All the ads you see in this issue were posted for free. If you want to advertise your items for sale to the 60,000 subscribers of Not So Modern Drummer, please join drumsellers.com, post your listing there for free, then contact me via email about placing your ad in this monthly email. It’s $5 per ad.
Several well known collectors are now posting a lot of their gear at DrumSellers: Phil Wilson and Gary Astridge to drop a couple of names. Several manufacturers just started posting ads: Walberg & Auge Drums, Alternate Mode/Kat, Queen City Drums, Hayward Custom Drums. I’m inviting all retailers to use DrumSellers.com, whether brick and mortar or online dealers.
Read moreA little later Buddy comes over puts his arm around me and says; Jack would you play for me? Picture this: A fifteen-year old kid sitting behind Buddy Rich’s drums. I still don’t have the words to describe how incredible that felt.
Read moreBobby T Torello and Bill Ludwig III at Dynamic Percussion Drum Shop
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“Damn, gotta’ couple of really good students...The lesson is - I will charge them and steal their licks. If you are interested in me stealing your licks… Hit me up for a few lessons. “
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THE RECORDING ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS Will air on PBS - October 5, 2018
Read moreWendy Lubbers doesn’t know exactly how the now-famous Gretsch drum logo originated. But she speculates that Fred Jr.—knowing how creative her dad was, and seeing the many logos he had designed for local small businesses and schools—approached Bob about creating a new Gretsch drum logo. “My dad was as big-hearted as he was talented,” says Wendy. “He did a lot of free artwork and logos for his friends. I’m sure he jumped at the chance to work on something that was music related—especially for Uncle Fred and for Gretsch drums.”
Read moreThis installment of Vintage Happiness is on my first Leedy love. This was the first Leedy set in my collection and the one that made me buy several more Leedy sets!
I became a big fan of the art deco lugs and T-rods from this era. This is the era that many collectors refer to as the “Slingerleedy” period when Slingerland owned Leedy and manufactured these drums as well as Slingerlands from 1955 through 1966. This is a 1965 Leedy Shelly Manne Outfit No. 11 in Sparkling Champagne Pearl.
The set consists of a 14x20 bass drum, 9x13 tom, 16x16 floor tom, and the fantastic 5.5x14 Shelly Manne snare with the Broadway throw off. The drums also have the “chocolate milk” interiors, which is consistent with Slingerland manufacturing.
Read moreI just got this drum from my good friend and fellow collector Mark Cooper. This drum came to me in excellent shape so very little was needed to be done hence the short story.
Read moreThe drum set I am featuring from my collection this month is a Slingerland Modern Jazz Outfit catalog number 9N. The drum sizes are 20X14, 14X14, 12X8, and a 14X5 Sound King chrome over brass 8 lug snare drum with a "Zoomatic" strainer. All drums have "Rim Shot" rims. I always call these rims "Stick Savers", but I saw that they weren't called that in the late 60s catalog. The interiors are coated with the tan or "chocolate milk" paint used in the late 1960s. The Niles, Illinois badges are black and brass ovals with serial numbers. The awesome feature about these drums is the ultra-cool Gold Satin Flame Pearl wrap. I just love the Satin Flame wraps. The wrap looks so good on these drums. I'm always looking for the "pot of gold" and this sweet drum set is just that.
Read moreIn the summer of 1974, a friend of mine was hosting an ‘all-night’ Rockabilly variety show at Myron’s Ballroom in Los Angeles and he asked me to sit in with Ray Campi. Colin Winski was singing vocals and playing rhythm guitar. We ended up playing several shows together throughout the summer as the Rollin’ Rock Rockabilly Band.
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Your job as a drummer is simple: Hit stuff. Usually you'll want/need to hit things in a more-or-less controlled manner. Below are the basic strokes from which all others flow. Note that for each type of stroke, the position of the stick at the end of the stroke is just as important as the start position.
Read moreFAT has some major gigs this weekend including the new MGM Grand Casino in Springfield, Mass. There is no doubt their huge fan club will be out in force. David Barsalou shares the history of their great drummers in this article.
