Hi,

Here’s another snare drum to enter the collection. I got this drum in May from a very nice gentleman named Mark Hamon. For those of you that are old Not So Modern Drummer subscribers you will recognize Mark as the photographer of all of those great NSMD cover shots. A thank you goes out to Bill Wanser for helping me to date this drum.

1927-32 LUDWIG & LUDWIG 6.5 x 14 BLACK LACQUER/DeLUXE SUPER-LUDWIG MODEL

THE SHELL:

These black lacquer/DeLuxe drums have been unofficially nick-named (for the obvious reasons) “Wood Black Beauties” but there is no mention of that in any of the L & L catalogs.

The DUCO (DuPont Company) black lacquer was in great shape with only a few little dings in the exterior so I just touched up the dings with a little black paint. I could have left the shell as is but there were so few dings that I chose the touch up route. The solid maple interior was in great shape with a clean oval badge and tight grommet.

THE HARDWARE:

I was able to narrow down the date to 1927-32 for a few reasons that Bill Wanser pointed out to me. The tube lugs are “counter sunk” (1927-) as compared to the earlier, rounded, “threads at the top” tube lugs (1926 and before) and there is no tone control (pre-1932) as tone controls first showed up in the 1932 catalog. The DeLuxe finish was in very good condition and needed only a light cleaning. I did notice that the snare guards were finished in the later Classic Gold finish so I swapped those out for a pair of era-correct matching snare guards from my parts stash.

The drum came with of-the-era calf heads and 2 sets of original Super wires.

Enjoy!

Mike Curotto