The Art of snare drum building is thriving. There were 22 drum badges from the largest manufacturers, established independent builders, and the builders new to the scene. The art and science of custom drum building has become big business over the past few years so there was some stiff competition.
Read more2014 Snare Drum Olympics Results
The results of the 2014 Snare Drum Olympics are posted at www.snaredrumolympics.com along with corresponding videos, info and click-to-buy links for select snare drums entered in the event.
The Snare Drum Olympics event was started by Not So Modern Drummer founder John Aldridge in 1998 as “basically an excuse to get a bunch of really cool drums into one room at the same time.” It has evolved into an international showcase for some of the best snare drums in the world. It is a huge publicity event that has been heavily promoted by the drum manufacturers, the major drum magazines, and online drum sites and forums. YouTube. Facebook, Twitter and other social media have added another big layer of publicity over the past couple of years. The new SnareDrumOlympics.com website was recently launched this year. Each drum has its own page with videos, info and an optional click-to-buy link.
The 2014 judges were Jim Riley, drummer for Rascal Flatts, Ben Sesar, drummer for Brad Paisley, Keio Stroud drummer for Big and Rich, Beth Gottlieb, percussionist for the Gary Sinise and Lt. Dan Band, and Scott Radock, pro NYC drummer. The judging was held at Jim Riley’s Drum Dojo in Nashville TN on October 16.
The snare drums were categorized by shell composition and judged in two events; objective/blind and subjective/hands on. The results are reported as the top three scores in each shell category in each event, as the top three accumulative scores of the two events, and as the top three scores of all the drums. Also reported are the results from the public judging at the 2014 Nashville Drum Show this past September.
Brands participating this year were:
David Lee Drums Chicago Drum Infinity Drumworks DTS Custom Snare Drums Taye Drums Hayward Custom Drums Hogchain Custom Drums Klemm Drums Rasch Drums Guru Drums Holloman Custom Drums Artisan Drum Works Swindoll Custom Drums Goodman Drum Company Castle Drum Company Laudo Drums Outlaw Drums Gretsch Drums Pearl Drums Eccentric Systems Drums Bello Drums Furcinitti Custom Drums RotodruM
For more information, visit www.snaredrumolympics.com.
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.
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