In early 2012, I received a call from a guitar player answering my ‘Looking for Older Drums’ ad. He had acquired an “old Ludwig” through a local yard sale and having tired of it sitting around just gathering more dust, thought I might be interested. From his description over the phone, I determined it was a Ludwig & Ludwig wood shell snare drum from the early to mid-1920’s. A few days later and after a four-hour return road trip, I had the drum in hand.
I’ve long imagined being able to travel back to Roaring 20’s Chicago, New York City or Toronto, for the experience of walking into a music store and checking out the latest offerings from the instrument manufacturers of that day. And as this snare drum was in a pretty tired looking condition, I decided to put that theme to the test and restore it in a way that would bring back some of its past glory.
I chose to refinish the hardware in the Deluxe finish, which during this period in Ludwig history, consisted of a transparent gold dye lacquer, spray applied over copper plating. In my first attempt to reproduce this beautiful and timeless finish, the original nickel plating was stripped and refinished in copper by a local industrial plating shop. All pieces were then given a thorough cleaning, after which I applied a commercially-available aerosol version of the transparent gold dye lacquer. During this process, I found it helpful to keep handy an already completed tube lug, so that the final appearance of all additional hardware matched this reference standard. Applying too little or too much of the tinted lacquer can create variations in final colour and depth, so there was some trial and error here at first.
The original chipped lacquer coating on the 4 X 14 one-piece mahogany shell exterior was removed by successively sanding with coarse to very fine grit paper. Following a pre-treatment wipe, a dark walnut stain was then applied over the raw reddish-hued grain, followed by a wood sealer and finally, multiple coats of a semi-gloss clear lacquer. For this restoration, I chose to leave a somewhat open grain effect to enhance the shell’s depth and detail versus the original and fully sealed factory finish. Period coiled wire snares and L&L calfskin heads complement the wonderful warmth of that unmistakable solid mahogany sound.
This snare drum model is listed in the 1923 Ludwig & Ludwig catalog as No. 21 Wood Shell Separate Tension. Although the Deluxe finish does not appear to have been a standard catalog offering for this particular model, I believe William Ludwig Sr. would have approved such a request from an enquiring and eager customer. Of the many restorations I’ve done over the past thirty years, this one is still my personal favorite, and I hope you enjoy it!