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The Ludwig drum kit of Wayne Kilbourne from
Australia …And
its story
Early
in 1994 my wife discovered not only a bass drum and accessories in an antique auction
but also found a snare drum and hi-hats in a junk shop in the same week period
(very strange)! I
purchased the bass drum and accessories for only $30…actually, no body else
bid! The bass drum was sadly out of
shape and the table on which the accessories sat upon was very badly
deteriorated. Of course the bass
drum had been painted very badly by a previous owner and one of the calfskins
was broken. The snare drum from the junkshop however was in a very good
condition and even though both skins were broken, the fact that the rims were
still on had kept the shell in perfect shape!
I
just so happened to be working at the time at a Luthiers (guitar maker), why was
a drummer working at a guitar-makers? Don’t
ask! Anyway, my boss was delighted
to think I wanted to restore something as old as him and so under his guidance
(he was and still is a great craftsman (Ian Noyce of NOYCE GUTARS Australia) I
set about the task of bringing my three fortunes into play. I
was very fortunate indeed to have access to great tools and facilities so that I
could do the necessary sanding, stripping, gluing, steaming, patching, painting
and polishing. It only took about a year of my spare time, but the outcome was
well worth it!
I
decided that I wanted to restore the kit in a practical way so that it could be
played often, so I adapted it for playing and sound reasons. This meant the
decision to adapt the kit for plastic skins...it was a hard choice. The snare was easy for the rims fit exactly a 14 inch snare skin (how lucky was I?) and the split in one of the rims was easily repaired with modern glue technology. The snare had not been painted on and there were no drill holes in the shell except for the remnants of the old snare strainer. (could this be the first free-floating snare??).
The
lugs for the snare were re-plated by a professional who accidentally
chrome-plated them instead of nickel-plating them, but told me the process of
chroming was only one step further than nickel-plating and that if I wanted he
would just dip them in something and the chrome would wash off and what would be
left was nickel. But the chrome
looked so shinny I decided to leave it on.
He told me that the process of chroming was invented about 1930's so this
made me think my drum was older than this.
Unfortunately the snare mechanism was not functional so I purchased a new
Ludwig piccolo snare mechanism which works fine.
I
still to this day can not find any information on a mahogany snare drum with no
badge but a 'burnt' stamp on the inner shell,
“Ludwig & Ludwig U.S.A. Chicago". Editor’s note:
I checked with John Aldridge of NSMD and was informed that this was done
at Ludwig with some of the economy line snare drums during the 1910s and 20s. -
CTG The
bass drum on the other hand was HARD WORK...After painfully stripping off the
paint; I had to work out what was to be done about its shape. It looked
something like an egg on one side and something else on the other but finally
the breakthrough was to steam the drum into shape so that the steam makes the
old wood flexible enough not to break and splinter. As this process was being
done, I placed 2 support struts inside the drum to help it keep its new shape
and to support it through the next 200 years or so. Then,
when I thought the worst was over, I realized the diameter of the drum was the
equivalent of a 25 and 3/4 inch bass drum and 25 inch and 26 inch bass drum
skins don't fit into any of these equations because of the hoops, understand?
So I had to make new hoops. How was I going to do that? After some time
My boss and I realized that we needed a craftsman to help us and that led to the
brainwave of a hoop-maker! Who
makes hoops you say?? A coachbuilder of course!! There just happened to be a
coach builder nearby in a historical family park/ tourist attraction and so I
went to him with my tale of woe.
He
kindly used his coach wheel-making machine (which bends wood into hoops!) and
made me 2 hoops of @26 inches in diameter.
This only cost me $50 but I then had too join the hoops like one joins a
"roll your own" cigarette paper by licking and rolling but the hoops
were a little thicker than paper and getting right was very hard.
Although it worked and the hoops are strong, I am not happy with my
joining skills as the hoops are not perfectly round but still hold the skins on
without a problem.
Now
that I had my new hoops (I still have the old ones) freshly painted and restored
bass drum and new skins, I then discovered that the lugs (which have not been
re-plated due too lack of cash(@$200)) would not align to the hoops because they
threaded though the lug-guiders screwed into the bass drum shell!!
What was I to do?? I decided
to follow the make of the snare and create a free-floating bass drum (I still
have all these bits in a bag safely put away just incase I ever go back to calf
skins and the old rims). What
I decided to do next was plug up the holes left over from removing the
lug-guides by filling the holes with round wood cut outs and stained them to
match the original color of the wood. Someone
somewhere told me that in the early days of drum kits hi-hats were a time-keeper
and were no higher than your knee, this was good to hear for I thought that some
of mine was missing though it is an ugly hi-hat stand.
All the other accessories which you see in the photo came with the bass
drum at the auction but I don’t know their origin or authenticism (is that a
word?) but they are old so I put them in there just incase someone who sees this
knows there history and e-mails me.
I
have used the kit in both blues gigs and original gigs (but with new-old
Zildjian cymbals) and it sounds old but crisp as if it still has the spirit and
rhythm of the original owner getting out his frustrations back in Chicago in the
speak-easys of the 1920's . It’s
truly magical.
I
have spent many hours on the net trying to find information about my drums.
I don’t know if the snare & bass are from the same kit (though they
were found in two shops in the same week) but then I found the Ludwig users web
site (www.ludwigdrummer.com) and was
reborn to the fact that I am not alone… MY LONG LOST BROTHERS HOW GOOD IT IS
TO FINALY FIND YOU. I hope you add this long but interesting story to your site and if any body can help me discover the age and origin of my drum kit please don’t hesitate to email me. My email is: P.S.
I have only seen 1 picture of a wooden Ludwig snare that looks like mine,
but it had a badge on it and no comment about a stamp on the inside.
Why is this so rare?
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