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The first vintage & Custom Drum Magazine, since 1988
I started to conceptualize this many years ago following a glimpse of a SS Ludwig Timp-Tom trio set.
After making a trade with a fellow drummer and friend for a beautiful original set of Timps recently in 14”, 16” & 18” I got to work
I was looking for one of these beautiful drums to add to my collection and found this one on drumsellers.com. I was able to contact George Lawrence who did a great job in helping me obtain it from a collector who was selling some of his collection
Read moreThe second was the 100th Anniversary Black Beauty. “Often imitated but never duplicated, Ludwig set the standard for all others to follow with the Black Beauty. The 100th Anniversary edition, hand-engraved and numbered by master craftsman John Aldridge, is more ornately appointed than all others before it, and features the mark of three generations of Ludwig history. “Chief” Keystone badge”.
Read moreJohnny created a lot of interest back in the early 2000s with his acquisition of a stash of 600 + year old birch that had been discovered at the bottom of Lake Superior.
Read moreFor a brief period of time Craviotto Drums partnered with C & C drums to offer a short run of snare drums and drum sets in various shades of real abalone shell material that was applied to the solid maple Craviotto shells.
Read morei endorse Crocken Drum Sticks. No one else hand crafts sticks like these and nothing else feels like them. As Mr. Crocken says, they are fun to use. -George Lawrence
Read moreHere are three Lang/NSMD Gladstone engraved gold Triumphal prototypes (#s 1, 2, 3) from 2004-2005. I purchased these from John Aldridge who was the engraver of these snare drums. John’s company at the time, NSMD Co., also supplied the shells for these drums.
Read moreThese three drums were ordered at the 2007 Chicago Vintage Drum Show. Master drum craftsman Johnny Craviotto (Craviotto Drums) teamed up with master drum craftsman Adrian Kirchler (AK Drums) to create the Craviotto Drums/AK Drums Diamond Series snare drums.
Read moreBrady Drums, made by Chris Brady and company, are revered worldwide for their fine craftsmanship, exotic Australian timbers, and most notably their wonderful and unique sound. Chris Brady, truly a drum building pioneer, introduced Jarrah, Sheoak, Wandoo, Spotted Gum, and other indigenous Australian woods into the vocabulary of drummers. Brady constructed these drums with ply, stave/block, and even solid shells.
Read moreBefore Joe Partridge and I started the Famous Drum brand (“You must have heard of us - we’re Famous!”), I built three sets of custom painted drums for a catalog of what was to be the “Lawrence Drum Company” and had some great pics made of the shells. This was in the early mid 2000s when I was building drums at George’s Drum Shop. I abandoned the Lawrence badge name in favor of Famous, but these drums were never badged.
Read moreThis is a great video that shows the processes Noble & Cooley Drums uses to produce their one ply drum shells, hardware and finishes. Though I now mostly sell my own Famous Drum Company brand of one ply drums, I consider N&C to be the bench mark. Contact me if you are interested in a Famous or an N&C.
Read moreThis drum is from 2012 It was made for me by the great Adrian Kirchler from Italy. It is 7" x 14" brass with 24k gold plating. The shell is of 2 piece construction with soldered bearing edges like the 1920s Standard or Black Beauty models from Ludwig, although the "triangle" of the bearing edge is smaller in size [profile] than the
1920s drums.
Aaron Latos is a young drum maker from Newburgh, NY who is making hand crafted nickel/brass snare drums.
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See, play, and win the new Famous Drum Company “Celebrity” single ply snare drum at the Chicago Drum Show.
Read moreIt's constructed of brass in the old school 1920s Ludwig style soldered at the center bead. The bearing edges are also soldered back to the shell as in the 1920s Ludwigs. It's plated in 24k gold.
Read moreThese two snares are made out of the same constructed 6-ply shell - walnut (1) / ash (4) / walnut (1). Walnut is known for its classic and attractive characteristics for tone and visual aesthetic. Sonically, walnut’s tonal colors can be characterized as having a big and dark low end to it. On the other side of the coin, ash is known for its warmer highs and mids compared to maple. Having ash as the core and walnut as your outer plies allow you to obtain a lot of low end in the higher tuning range while not sounding “choked”. These drums will also have a deep and darker low end than maple. Both snares have a slight round over on the outer edge with a 45-degree inner cut. This allows the snare to give you both body and lively overtones.
It all started at George’s Drum Shop, my retail store in Jackson Mississippi from 1985 - 1987. Joe Partridge was my right hand man there, doing minor repair and refurbishing jobs like taking the old wrap off of drums and re-wrapping them (actually burning the wrap off of the old volatile pre-OSHA drums - the more sadistic customers wanted to be called when we did that so they could come watch!) Joe would also drill holes to put new hardware on some of the customers’ drums. We didn’t actually build any drums at that store, per se, just sold typical name brand drums and repaired then. Joe and I would start building drums separately in the years after that first shop .closed. But, I had some foil stickers made that looked like drum badges with the name of the store and a cool looking drum. So that was as far as we got with the drum building in those first years - badges!
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“This is a really unique sounding snare! The resonance seems to have a lot of warm complexity to it. It’s very crisp and sensitive. Playing light quick ghost notes and buzz rolls felt super comfortable and articulate. It really surprised me when I moved it down to a lower open tuning - this whole other body and fullness came out of the drum... huge! Overall, this is just a beautiful instrument - sonically and aesthetically” - Kris Redus
Read moreI’d like to share some of our conversations in order for you to get to know Mike as I did, describe a few examples of his work, and also explain how his approach differs from that of other gifted hand engravers, like John Aldridge and Adrian Kirchler.
Read moreThe shells are all hand built in my garage. I do have more pictures of building and complete. The “show piece” is the snare made from maple and Purple Heart.
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