Behind the 1995 Black Beauty - Tim Eagan of Stanley N.C.

Tim                    with 3 of the 1995 Ludwig Black Beauty shells.

Many of us involved with vintage drums think of John Aldridge when we think of Black Beauty engraving.  Well let me introduce you to Tim Eagan.

Tim has been doing custom engraving for many years now and does a beautiful job.  Its no wonder that Ludwig chose Tim to do 74 engraved snare

drums for them 1995 in 3 different sizes. 

I asked Tim how he landed the contract with Ludwig.

I was actually scanning the help wanted adds in the Charlotte Observer for a job for my wife when I saw an add for "hand engraver - work at home or in our
facility. Call ....." Well, my wife grew up in a family that had a trophy business and she had done pantograph work and other types of trophy lettering
and I figured that's what the job probably was. When  I called and found out it was Ludwig I thought maybe it would be something either of us could do. I
am a machinist and had run big pantographs and always worked with my hands. I went to the Ludwig plant in Monroe, NC at the appointed time and met with the
plant manager. He showed me some samples of the Black Beauty engraving. I had never seen anything like it before so, naturally, when he asked me if I
thought I could do the work I said, "Sure." He sent me home with a trial drum and after several weeks of trying to figure out how in the world to do the
engraving I hit on the right combination of tool-making and engraving techniques that landed me the job. I engraved about 2 drums a week for the
next 8 months but then the "limited edition" had run it's course and no more work was available. I then decided it was time to learn the finer points of
engraving and have been at it ever since.
 

If you have an engraved B.B. from that era and you want to know if Tim engraved it then look on the inside of the shell behind the Ludwig logo.  He personally

signed and number each drum.  I asked Tim what kind of tools engravers use to do this kind of work and I envisioned some sort of dremmel type tool with an

electric motor and a cutting head.  He informed me that all of his engraving is done without using any type of power tool at all.  It takes a lot of skill, patience and

elbow grease.  Tim  also informed me that two hours is the longest that you can work at a sitting before fatigue and shaky hands force you to stop.

Well anyway, Tim can custom engrave just about anything so check out his website if you're interested.  I've got a couple of plain-jane (unengraved) 90's B.B.s

that I think I'll get a quote on.  Maybe Tim can turn them into something like what you see in the photos below.

Thanks Tim for contacting me and sharing with us your part in Ludwig history!

Click here to check out Tim's engraving site!

Fantastic 1995 Black Beauty engraved by Tim	Tim with three beauties sunning themselves on his deck.	Ludwig USA
	This is a newer custom design that Tim has created.