Ludwig released 4 new models in 1929 : Super-Sensitive, New Era-Sensitive, Super-Power, and the Standard Sensitive.

I just bought a new kit from Nelson’s in Nashville, but have been perplexed on where it came from.

This set is an impeccable example of a 1930-39 trap kit that shows the changes and innovations that were quickly occurring to the drum set.

Solids were produced starting in the late eighties by Huey Lewis and the News drummer, Billy Gibson and drum maker,  Johnny Craviotto. They were made with a steam bent 1-ply maple shell and maple reinforcing rings, much like vintage Slingerland Radio Kings.

Frankly, I didn’t know Sears was selling these complete sets this early on, and with endorsers!

One of the most common sights to see on a Star made snare drum is a missing lever on a 930 Strainer. The overall design of the 930 was inspired by Slingerland’s Zoomatic. I have a way to keep the strainer and just add a lever to it.

 This is my very rare 1970s 6.5” x 14” Color Code No. 2201-Clear Ludwig No. 415KP Vistalite Super Sensitive Blue & Olive Pointy Badge Snare Drum.

This Zickos Drum Corporation factory authorized portfolio is either a dealer catalog, corporate item, a dealer only item or distributor book. And it is full of separate loose distribution flyers and smaller catalogs.

I have attached a number of pictures of the finished bass drum. I have also included a picture of a Black Diamond Pearl kit I use that includes a bass drum from the 1940’s and toms from the 1970’s. It sounds amazing.

Ludwig produced (presented) only 5 of these snare drums that were gold plated with name plaques.

This would have been an above standard professional drum kit for a working drummer that was playing in orchestras, vaudeville, and theaters for silent films in the 1920-30s.

I didn’t go looking for a story when I bought this drum kit. At the time, I thought I was simply stepping into vintage drums more intentionally than I ever had before.

“In my humble view, this century young visual and sonic masterpiece features one of the most beautiful finishes to ever adorn a drum”

But what makes me curious (and has stumped a good few people more in the know than I am) is the wrap. It is (now considerably yellowed) WMP but it has these gold & silver strands running through it.

An often-overlooked part of a Vintage MIJ kit is the Bass Drum Pedal. Most Japanese pedals back then had no name or markings and were pretty generic looking, but Pearl had their “SPEED PEDAL”, no doubt inspired by the Ludwig Speed King and Star had their “PRO PEDAL”, and there is even a “TOP PEDAL” out there. Not to be outdone Gracy via Yan Drum had their “FOOT PEDAL”

For me this drum is a keeper, it has so many of the things I look for in a snare drum, thin shell, solid lugs, stick-saver hoops, a reliable strainer, and a stunning wrap. If you find a Gracy like this one out there, I highly recommend!

Presenting the most durable and authentic looking replacements for missing or cracked/broken factory original Rim Clips, Tube Lugs and Tension Rods. 

Designed and precision manufactured to meet the specification tolerance and appearance requirements for factory original fittings on 1920’s and 30’s Ludwig & Ludwig snare drums in both Deluxe (new or aged) and Bright Nickel finishes.

Sears not only owned the Sears brand name, but they also owned the Silvertone name which they used for musical instruments and their electronics, but they were also okay with not branding their instruments at all. In fact, most of the drums that came through Sears had no branding at all.

955 WFL Black & White and Colorized versions of the 1955 catalog with a few big differences.

The color is so vibrant and bright it was shocking once I cleaned all the dirt off.

This is a very rare snare drum. Of the 3 dance/band Sensitive models introduced in 1929 I feel that the Standard-Sensitive is the rarest although I would not argue if the New-Era Sensitive was also thought of as the rarest.

Want to sell your gear the old fashioned way? Advertise in NSMD. Also you can let NSMD handle the whole sale on a consignment basis.

I first applied a high solids filling primer to completely fill in the wood grain, followed by a commercial textured coating to effect the irregular surface feature of this finish.  The intermediate and final colour coats were achieved with an antique brass lacquer finish, onto which I sprinkled brass metal flakes.  I then repeated this application sequence a few more times to add depth of finish, before applying a clear lacquer to produce the final ‘satin smooth’ appearance and feel.  Additionally, each piece of the copper re-plated hardware was then treated with my ‘aged patina’ process to simulate almost 100-year-old Deluxe finish.

In 1975 I purchased a chrome over wood Slingerland kit that I travelled extensively with over the next 11 years.  This was a monster kit with a 28x14 bass drum,

 It has some beautiful graphics inside, including color pictures of the Black Beauty “Ludwig Deluxe Model” and the “New Ludwigold Irridescent Display Finish”

Now what got me here was my habit of always being on the lookout for drums, especially the stencils, and there were several drum sets that were used on the show, each season this poor struggling family found a way to get a different drum kit.

This Wine Red Ripple 1960s Rogers Swingtime set I am featuring came up for sale a while back and I quickly jumped on it. I was not going to let them get away from me.

This one is a bit of a transitional oddity, nothing earthshaking but a little quirky.

Only six tubular lugs were installed, probably to conserve metal because eight or ten lugs were typical for 15” snare drums before the war.

This drum is in excellent ++ working order. The seamless Powerline metal shell drums sound great and punchy whether tuned low and fat or tight and crisp