I want to feature a 1960s Zim Gar stencil set from my collection this month. Most of you know these sets were made in Japan. Sometimes you will see them listed as MIJ drums. They were made at the Pearl and Star (Tama) factories and imported in to the United States as a cheaper alternative to the great American drums.
Read more1950-55 Leedy & Ludwig 5x14 "Zebra" Broadway Standard
I got this drum from Bun E. Carlos at the 2013 Chicago Vintage Drum Show. Bun E. Carlos had the only two known Leedy & Ludwig Zebra snare drums, a 4 x 14 Broadway New-Era and a 5 x 14 Broadway Standard. He sold me the 5 x 14 Broadway Standard. The drum was previously owned by Mark Cooper of Coopers Vintage Drums and a special thanks goes to Mark for the additional info on this drum. Bun E. also helped me to authenticate the Zebra finish by giving me a few photos of his Leedy & Ludwig “Salesman Sample” floor tom shell that shows the Zebra finish as one of the samples. Bun E. added this: "The wrap was available to the general public. Aside from your drum, and my 5 drums, I've seen only 2 other Zebra drums, a big bass drum and floor tom on EBay a few years back. Only 8 drums, rarer than an original Triumphal!!!!! Haha!!"...? I love Bun E.’s wry sense of humor.
Read moreWilliam Kent (1915-2014)
William Kent, co-founder of the Kent Drum Company, passed away in his Buffalo, New York area home on December 11, 2014. William turned 99 years old last month and passed after a very short illness.
In 1947 William and Ed Kent opened the Kent Drum Company in Kenmore, NY with a focus to create student-level kits, encouraging music making at all economic levels. The company also offered professional-level drum sets, snare drums and percussion accessories. William was always proud of a common story told throughout the industry - "A Christmas morning surprise, in 1964 or 1965... for the young Ringo want-to-be, a new Kent Drum set under the tree!" The company closed in 1977, allowing William and Ed to retire. Drum Paradise, their retail shop next to the factory, closed the following year.
William Kent's 2013 NAMM Oral History interview: https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/william-kent
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Text courtesy of Dan Del Fiorentino, NAMM Music Historian.
Master Blaster
As with many drums of the 18th and 19 centuries, this full-barrel bass was more than likely hand crafted by a trunk and furniture maker, or possibly even a coach and carriage builder. The main tack pattern surrounding the sling attachments is very common to that which was used on the lids of storage or travel trunks of the era. A drum maker would normally have his own unique tack pattern to identify his work as opposed to a commonly used utilitarian tack design familiar to trunk builders. A secondary brass tack pattern of a circle within a circle is located surrounding the unreinforced vent hole.
Read more1932-34 Slingerland 6.5x14 Duco DuAll
A very brief history for those that may not know the history of the Ludwig Super vs. Slingerland DuAll battle: Ludwig & Ludwig had the patent (1924) for their parallel (Super-Ludwig) mechanism. Along comes Slingerland with their version of a parallel mechanism that they called the DuAll model. Ludwig felt that Slingerland’s DuAll mechanism was infringing on their Super-Ludwig mechanism so they sued Slingerland and won. The court ordered Slingerland to discontinue their DuAll model and I seem to remember reading that Slingerland had to pay L & L the money that was made on their sales of the DuAll models. DuAlls were in production for less than two years so these snare drums are extremely rare.
Read more1960s Rogers Cleveland Holiday Set
This set is a beautiful blue glass glitter finish that has developed a texture. They are not smooth to the touch. It is uniform over the complete set. I would like one of the Rogers experts to shed some light on this mystery for me. The paper labels inside indicate that these are Cleveland Holiday models. The solid grey interiors indicates that these are early 1960s. I have been told the Cleveland and the Dayton models were both made at Covington. Production was later moved to Fullerton.
Read more1940 Radio Kings - A Family Tradition
I was scrolling through a vintage drummer Facebook group one day, and I came across a post from Joe Ciucci. Rather, I came across an open-mouth drool worthy video of his 1940 restored Slingerland Radio Kings…. Joe was just the guy attached to the post! I sent a message to Joe, and we struck up a conversation. Joe turned out to be as nice as his drums, and I offered to showcase the drums in Not So Modern Drummer. He took me up on the offer, and here we are today. Joe was instrumental in setting up our Nashville Drum Show trip to ATL Drum Collective, and if you came to the Nashville show, you couldn't have missed the Radio Kings in the vintage drum museum.
Read moreBrooklyn Walking Tour: Traveling Through Gretsch History Today
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 more