I was in a music store in Lawrence KS (Richards Music if awesome if you ever are here). I was in search of a some lugs and tension rods for another drum build I was working on and I ran across a 1965 15" drum. Ludwigs have always been my "vintage drum to drool over" for some time now. I bought it at the time for the parts and put the shell up in my attic for a while. I got around to fixing it up and figured it would make an excellent snare drum if I added some hardware and a few more things. It was a fun project and it is now complete. It is sensual and has a deep tone. This is a Barry White snare if I have ever seen one. Below is the process my redneck ass followed to complete this 1965 Ludwig Tenor-to-Snare- Mod (or butchery as the purests would say).
Original Condition
Serial Number 233295 (1965 range), No drill holes for snare hardware but did have holes for the muffle, Wood was most likely 3-ply Mahogany/poplar/ Mahogany according to this source. The drum shell was in pretty good condition. The hardware has some pitting and rust. I did get all of the 5" lugs for the drum and both rims.
Cleaning and Sparkle
If you ever need to clean drum hardware, I recommend Never-Dull. It smells horrible, but does clean the chrome well.
This drums also has what looks like pink/purple and green sparkled wrap. All the parts that were exposed had a silver sparkle to it, but when I cleaned the hardware, I saw that the sun must have faded the original. Could you imagine a whole set with that wrap?
Parts and Supplies
-Shell- $60 at Richards Music in Lawrence KS.
-Ludwig Rocker drum heads on ebay ($22)
-a Ludwig P85 throw ($24) and a Ludwig P32 Butt ($6)
-long snare string
-a 15" 10 hole snare side rim (I had one)
-Muffle-
-a snare- currently a 14" I had laying around.
Snare Strainer and Butt Install
I made some templates for the drill markers, taped them on, and drilled baby drilled. I had an extra muffle laying around and added that too (there were holes pre drilled for this, on the same segment as the Ludwig Badge. It appears that the strainer placement isn't how Ludwig did it (they off set the throw one segment from the Badge I do believe.
Snare Beds-
I had to cut snare beds into this drum cause the snares won't touch the head (see the theory why). This is the snare bed tutorial I followed. Originally I planned on a 3/16" deep and 6" wide bed. After looking and thinking, I went smaller with 1/8" deep and 3 1/2" wide. If in the future I decide to go bigger I can, but after putting the drum together, this worked well.
I bought a drum sander for my hand held drill (barrel sanding bit from Sears- Craftman Sanding Drum- 1 1/2 x 1"- 9-24931- refill sleeves- 9-24932), a hand file, and some 180 and 220 grit sandpaper and went to town. I sanded the main groove down with the drum sander and finished up taking pressure off the edge with the hand file and smooth it out with sandpaper.
How it Sounds
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