Readings about Drums- James Blades' "Percussion Instruments and their History"

Crossroads Music Festival 2010 in Kansas City

The Ad Astra Arkestra played at The Brick on Saturday night for the Crossroads Music Festival, and it was completely insane and mad fun.  Micheal Forrester took a bad ass photo of the band through my bass drum. He also took many great shots from the evening and this is a link to his flicker gallery for this event.  The photo below was on The Pitch website (here is there write up on the event) and is of my boy Anthony beating the shit out of a woodblock.  Below that is Mr. Fasthands himself Nathan.  Popwreckoning.com also gave the Arkestra some love for out throwndown.

Owl People Show at the Replay 06-26-2010

We played a show at the replay with a band called Tommy Ferrari from Lawrence.  It was a helluva good time.  I am posting a couple of pics of my set up and my favorite track from the night, which we call "the reggae jam."  I had a stand up drum kit and some

Ad Astra Arkestra Percussion Rig

I am the second auxiliary percussionist with the band the Ad Astra Arkestra.  I get to go off on some hand drums, a glock, and a big 24" marching bassdrum.  It is fun.

I am in this band now

Some friends of mine asked me to play in there band call the Ad Astra Arkestra.  I am the new aux percussionist and will play lots of hand drums, and random other drums.

Sexy Vintage 1965 Ludwig Tenor Drum to Snare Conversion Project

The 1965 tenor drum restoration project is finished, and it is sensual. 

Mel Bay's Funk Drumming

My chops have slipped and I have project that my funk needs to be on point. Time to get down on it and hit the basics hard.

Stave Hoop Research

Me and my pops gave a whirl at making a staved hoop. Minus a some precision and a poorly glued joint, we almost had a success. Now it is back to the drawing board with some notes below:

1- if you have a 10 lug drum you need 10 staves (if it is single ply) so that the hole is directly centered between the two joints.

2- the glue joints are not flat, they have grooves in them (you many not have to if you use the jig shown below and then 2 layers)

Stave Hoop= one layer Segmented hoops= 2 layers

The guys at Fidoc Drums makes rims out of two stem bent pieces and then joints them. The pics below show the table saw jig used to cut the staves from DrumShed.org They also have a good collection of links showing how to turn a drum without a lathe, and use a router and a jig instead.

Two Kick Drum Into Floor Tom Converts

I made these drums for the band Owl People and Cloud Dog. The purple drum is a 22" kick with one head and it roars, I heard it through the PA at the Bottleneck and it felt like a 2 15" subs in a Geo Metro. The maroon drum is a kiddy drum kick 16". I added the floor tom mounts to both of them. They make a good quick and dirty floor tom menace.

My 1969 ludwig Supraphonic Snare Drum

Before

and

after

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/how_to_vintage_snare.html- How to clean up your vintage snare drum the correct way, ie no steel wool.

A Supraphonic Snare Link-

the serial number is 716989, date is Aug. 24, 1969, it is an aluminum alloy, 1969 Ludwig Supraphonic Snare Drum

It is pretty dirty (and has some rusted pit marks in the chrome). I got some "never dull" to make it shine, and it worked well in my test area on the drum. I will update this post when I take it apart and clean it proper.

Update- I got around to taking lugz off and cleaning it good. It was pitted pretty heavy, but I did get a lot of the grime of the last 40 or so yeers off of it. Luckily, the pits won't change the sound.

Forum Post on Differences in Ludwig Snares

Ludwig Drum Restoration Project

I got the drum you see above from a music store cause I had my head too right too early in the morning. It is an old Ludwig 15" tom. The following are some links concerning the things I have found.

I am going to make this into a snare drum with wooden claw type hoops (or maybe a homemade wood hoop).

Serial Number 233295 (1965 range), No drilled mounts, what type of wood???, the offical sparkle wrap name????

http://www.vintagedrum.com/ludwig_serials.htm- shows Ludwig Dating info- very indepth, aslo, the main site is a go

http://pdgood.us/drumshed/woodrims.html- The best how to on building wood hoops I have seen yet, it has measurements, wood tool talk, ect.

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/ludwig_badges.html- a great timeline of the different versions of Ludwig Badges and Logos over the years.


http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/555973510tqNUTZ?vhost=entertainment - a nice picture gallery of vintage Ludwig Snares, lots of marching ones.



Above are two drums out of the same time and place, aka marching bands of the 60's and 70's.
Below is a drum that would serve as a possible vision for what I am going to do with this shell. A 15", deep snare drum with claw style wood hoops?

Drums and Robots

Found on this site, and it has some cool DIY projects, it is like a mechanical John Cage robot.

Drums

These are my drums,

I bought them in the two Spanish cities on the North African Coast, Melilla and Ceuata. The top is a dumbek and is crafted of ceramic and was purchased in Melilla. The lower on is a set of clay bongos. I bought them for 5 euro from a hustler in Ceuta's port. Guy started at 20 euro, and I am the one who hustled. I play them by the river, and watch the sunset . .