Fred Gretsch still owns the Leedy name, and several years ago I asked Fred Gretsch if we could do some special Leedy USA drums using Craviotto solid shells. I liked the idea because Leedy was one of the companies that used solid shells for their snares at various times, and I thought it would be great to do some solid shell snares made in the USA with the Leedy name, but with Johnny Craviotto's incredible shells.
Read more1966 Ludwig Super Beat set
The Superbeat is an uncataloged set consisting of the optional 20” kick with the Super Classic 13” tom and 16” floor tom. So, 20/13/16. This set appears to be a special order set as well as both the floor tom and the tom have dual mufflers, one for the top and one for the bottom heads. The bass drum also has dual front and rear sets of spurs. All these options were available when you ordered a kit back then.
Read moreRegistration and payment for 2017 Snare Drum Olympics
1. Please pay via the add to cart button above. Or by Paypal. The Paypal address is george@notsomoderndrummer.com. If paying by check or money order please send to George Lawrence and send U.S. mail to George Lawrence, Not So Modern Drummer, 3341 Towne Village Road, Antioch TN, 37013.
2. Fill out the online form below, one for each drum if you are entering more than one. We will print this out here and attach it to your drum for the duration of the event.
Registration DEADLINES Send your drum on now. We will be doing some advance publicity before 1/15/2017. You can send a drum any time before the Final judging in November 2017 , but the publicity starts officially on January 15
- January 15, 2017 - First deadline: If you have your drum in by this date you will receive all the publicity and events planned for the year-long event. The event runs from January 15 to January 15 every year.
- The deadline for the display exhibit and public judging at Summer NAMM is July 1. If your drum(s) is received by this date it will be displayed at Summer NAMM in Nashville TN. July 13-15.
- November 15, 2017 - This is the deadline for the official judging. All drums have to be in by this date.
- Early January 2018 - Results will be published in time for Winter NAMM announcements.
Remember, the sooner you send your drum in, the sooner we can video it, photograph it and start publicizing it. See the registration form for shipping instructions.
-Insure your drum for shipping and return shipping. Send it in a very sturdy box and packing material that will survive a lot of transporting as we will be moving them around a lot. Do not use styrofoam packing peanuts. They are evil, pollute the environment and fly out of the box all over the place. If you wrap the drum in plastic or bubble wrap do not put packing tape on it. We do not want to put a knife anywhere near your drum and that's the only way to remove that stuff. Use a few short pieces of scotch tape. Please follow these instructions. We will return any drums that do not follow our packing guide lines.
-Each drum must have a return shipping label. Please place it on the drum head. All drums will be returned after the final judging and results announcements (early first quarter 2018) unless another option is checked.
-Please tell us in the additional comments box on the form if you are consigning the drum to us to sell at a 20% consignment fee, having someone pick it up in Nashville, or want to donate it to the Not So Modern Drummer Museum.
-All drums MUST have a single play coated medium weight batter head and a clear medium or thin snare side head. The heads on all drums must be the same so we can compare apples with apples (exceptions - concert and marching)
Please don't leave any boxes blank below. If it does not apply to your drum or you don't have an answer, please type NA. This will be emailed to George Lawrence at Not So Modern Drummer. Call if you have any questions about filling out the form. 330 338 6035
3 Main Divisions:
-Marching snares
-Orchestral snares
-Drum Set snares
orchestral and Drum Set drums are further classified by shell materials
-metals: brass, bronze, steel, aluminum, copper, titanium, etc.
-woods: maple, birch, walnut, combinations of wood, etc.
-synthetics: plastic, carbon fiber , etc.
-combinations: wood and metal, metal and synthetic, etc.,
Wood drums are then further classified by construction type:
-plywood, single ply steam bent, block, stave, etc.
and all drums are further grouped by diameter size:
Baritone -15” or larger diameter
Standard 14”
Piccolo 13"
Soprano 12”
Sopranino 10” and smaller
Snare Drum Olympics 2017 Rules and Guidelines
Fees:
The $125 entry fee is to pay for judges, video and photo shoots, transportation to shows, and other handling expenses. This fee is required no matter when you send your drum in. Any optional extra show display events besides the public display in Nashville may incur an extra charge.
Deadlines
Send your drum on now. We will be doing some advance publicity before 1/15/2017
- January 15, 2017 - First deadline: If you have your drum in by this date you will receive all the publicity and events planned for the year-long event. The event runs from January 15 to January 15 every year.
- November 15, 2017 - This is the deadline for the official judging. All drums have to be in by this date.
- Early January 2018 - Results will be published in time for Winter NAMM announcements.
Remember, the sooner you send your drum in, the sooner we can video it, photograph it and start publicizing it. See the registration form for shipping instructions.
Judging Criteria
We strive to compare apples to apples in the judging, so drums are grouped with similar drums.
3 Main Divisions:
-Marching snares
-Orchestral snares
-Drum Set snares
orchestral and Drum Set drums are further classified by shell materials
-metals: brass, bronze, steel, aluminum, copper, titanium, etc.
-woods: maple, birch, walnut, combinations of wood, etc.
-synthetics: plastic, carbon fiber , etc.
-combinations: wood and metal, metal and synthetic, etc.,
Wood drums are then further classified by construction type:
-plywood, single ply steam bent, block, stave, etc.
and all drums are further grouped by diameter size:
Baritone -15” or larger diameter
Standard 14”
Piccolo 13"
Soprano12”
Soprano 10” and smaller
We may add further sub-categories if warranted. We will list a spreadsheet of all possible judging categories soon.
Heads and Tuning
All drums have to have single ply medium thickness coated heads and medium or thin clear snare side heads so we can compare apples to apples. Drums with double ply heads usually have less snare sensitivity and tonal response and don't do well in the judging results.
Snare wires? Your preference, though we recommend standard 20 strand wires for the drum set drums.
Please tune your drum in order to stretch the heads. Medium tension will do. We are going to retune them all to the same pitch here with a tuning device (and by ear).
JudgingCriteria and Scoring
In the objective blind judging the drums are played behind the judge’s backs for two to three minutes each, using the same series of rudiments, patterns and beats on each drum as the judges vote from 1 to 10 on five criteria; snare wires sensitivity, tone quality, dynamic range, rim shot and side stick sounds, and blend of the drum with the drum kit. The judges have no idea of the manufacturer or model of the drum and can not see it. They are told the sequence number of the drum, and what the shell size and construction is. Otherwise, the only thing they have to go on is their ears. A perfect score of 50 from each judge would equal a total score of 250.
The subjective judging is the “hands on” part of the process where each judge sees, touches and plays each drum, judging from 1 to 10 on the five criteria of appearance, tone quality, response/sensitivity, dynamic range and hardware functionality. The judges take a lot of time with each drum and sometimes have in-depth discussions about a drum’s attributes. Though some of these judges may have endorsements from major drum companies they are very impartial in their judging. Again, a perfect score of 50 from each judge would equal a total score of 250.
The cumulative score is the total of the subject and blind scores with the highest possible cumulative score being 500. The cumulative score is the score printed on the certificate of award given to the companies for each drum submitted.
Results: The results are published as rankings for each category and sub-category. And there are three grand winners for the three highest scores in any category. So your drum may place high in the objective, low in the subjective and fair in the cumulative as a stave drum but still beat out every other drum in its "alien Mars wood" category. So there a lot of ways and categories in which to place and win. We publish all the scores in a table and highlight the three top scores in each category. The three drums with the highest cumulative scores in any category are the grand prize winners.
I know this can sound a little confusing to some. The main reason we do it this way is so each drum has the chance to shine in its many characteristics and to show that there is more than way to judge a drum.
*You may also have to your drum in the non - judged category. You will still the same amount of online publicity, and listed in the rankings as non-judged, just no numerical ranking at the end of the year.
FAQ
1. Can I enter more than one drum?
-Yes, as many as you want. The fee is the same for every drum and they must be boxed individually.
2. Who are the judges?
They are all top shelf working, touring and recording drummers usually from Nashville. Some are national and international celebrities. We line up more than we need during the year because inevitably there are schedule conflicts, some at the last minute, so we don't announce the names of the judges until after the end of year judging.
3. Is there a prize?
No physical prize. Each contestant can get a certificate of participation with or without the drums' scores. These are used frequently in advertisements.
1900s F.E. dodge drum kit



Recently a client of mine gave me a 100 year old F.E. Dodge drum kit that was in their attic that belonged to a relative. Knowing I am a drummer they gave it to me to see it would go to someone who would appreciate it. The kit included a bass drum with an almost mint wooden pedal & bass drum cymbal, two snares, snare stand dated 1901, a triangle and even three original pairs of drum sticks: wood, rosewood & ebony wood. The snares on one snare drum were the original cat guts.
Read morePennsylvania Drum Show oct. 22, 2017
1970s Ludwig Standard S-330 drum set finished in bronze strata
Standards have their own unique triangular shaped badge. The interiors of the bass and toms are coated with grey speckled paint, but some Standards have white painted interiors. Standards usually have smooth low mass lugs. If your Standard kit has Classic lugs that might also be correct. Ludwig would use the Classic lugs if they were low on Standard lugs.
Read moreA Deeper Mission For Austin Drummer Magazine
When I listen to Chris Layton, I hear the voice of Austin,Texas. Chris plays a shuffle in what I think is a similar place culturally speaking as Johnny Vidocavich, but instead of the NOLA music language, when Chris plays it's Austin drum-speak. Chris became the heartbeat of Austin music in the late 80s with a good variety of deep shuffles and solid funk beats. He wrote the book on it. If I were to try and pick out a drum style that most closely defines the Austin style of drumming during, this time, it would be his work. As the drummer for Stevie Ray Vaughn, Chris reached a national audience and joined the pantheon of Austin music gods in the late 80s.
Read moreAnd A One And A Two
It would be nice if we all could just hear complex rhythms and then play them. Most of us have to find some way of counting them. For example, I learned to play quarter note triplets with 'Pass the gol-durn butter'. I use 'serendipity' to count 5-lets. Doesn't really matter how you count things, as long as it works for you.
Read more1920s-30s DUPLEX 5 x 14 “ARTIST MODEL” ALL METAL ENGRAVED/GOLD PLATED BLACK JEWEL (CAT. #410-A)
As of this writing there are now five known Duplex engraved Black Jewel snare drums. The previous four Black Jewels are on pages 36-43 in my book: VINTAGE SNARE DRUMS, THE CUROTTO COLLECTION VOL. I. There is another way to look at this Black Jewel situation. Of the five Black Jewels only two actually have the name “Black Jewel” engraved on the shell so one could argue that there are only two Black Jewels in existence at this time, the one on pgs. 36-37 in my book and the drum in this article. Noted drum historian and black/engraved snare drum expert John Aldridge is of the opinion that the “un-named” drums are also Black Jewels so I am going with John’s evaluation. I have included a photo of the other 4 Black Jewels.
Read more1968 Ludwig Super Beat kit in black panther finish
Black Panther wrap was introduced in 1968 along with the mod wraps. It first appeared in the 1970 Ludwig catalog and was offered throughout the 70s. It’s really a one of a kind wrap. It has this fake leather look to it and, personally, it reminds me of the old Marshall amplifiers which is why I like it. It is a thin material that is unlike any other wrap used by Ludwig. The most famous drummer who used this early on was Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Read moreGear Obsessed - It Starts Slowly
I know I am not the only one. I’ve been on the internet. We are many. We are unabashed. We are gearheads. Professional drummers are amazing people. We worship them, adore them, buy their signature drumsticks, learn their techniques, styles and solos…hang posters of them in our practice spaces…but a few of us yearn for more. We love the drumming, but are fascinated, captivated, no…obsessed with…THE GEAR.
Read moreTen Pro Drum Building Tools You Should Have (#7 Will Blow You Away)
This article is really geared towards the weekend warrior who builds often enough where these small investments would be of value in the long run. These ten tools can lead to saving on service up charges from vendors, common costly mistakes, and potential component issues.
Read moreReflections On Shelly Manne: Chapter 11
Give a drummer a fish, and you feed them for a day. Give them a ride cymbal, teach them how to play it, and they’ll feed themselves for the rest of their lives.
1965 Ludwig Club Date Restoration
My project started with a bunch of Ludwig drums and assorted cymbals I bought from a guy going the digital route. Beneath the grime and stickers were a partial club date kit, 14" and 16" WMP B/O toms, and a super sensitive snare.
Read moreClaire Arenius at Amherst College
Claire was on fire that night… Playing with an impassioned determination that reached the farthest rows, and beyond. Her finesse and sensitivity showed through on every tune. Whether using sticks or brushes, playing fast or slow - stylistically, it didn’t matter…
Read more