Hi,

I heard of this drum in 2004, the owner, John Shaw was not ready to sell at that time but he did promise to give me first choice if and when he was ready to sell. Thirteen years later John kept his word and emailed me that he was ready to sell his snare drum. John and I made the deal for this drum on Super Bowl Sunday 2-5-17. I am only the third owner of this 90 + year od snare drum.

1925-28 LUDWIG & LUDWIG 6.5 x 14 12 PT. FLOWER-ENGRAVED DeLUXE MODEL

PROVENANCE:

John was kind enough to send me and allow me to use all of the provenance regarding this drum:

“This drum originally belonged to Mr. Lester Kimball, now deceased. Mr. Kimball had

been a prominent member of the Fitchburg community, and was one of the co-founders

of Franklin Pierce College in NH. Lester grew up in Leominster, and inherited the

Kimball and Son Clothiers store, which dated from the 1880 s. At one time, Kimball and

Sons was affiliated with Talbot Clothes.”

From the Fitchburg Historical Society:

“The obituary tells us that Mr. Lester R. Kimball was president and manager of

Kimball and Son Co., a leading area men's clothing store. He was a

community leader who spearheaded the now nationally recognized Arthur M.

Longsjo Jr. Memorial Bike Race. While a student in school, he played football,

basketball and track and was an organizer of the city's first high school band

in 1924. While in high school he formed an orchestra on his own, the Lester

Kimball Orchestra, which he conducted and led until 1937. This orchestra was

broadcasted over Radio Station WORC every Monday night. It also played at

school dances, country clubs, nightclubs and various fundraising charity

events at no charge. Mr. Kimball was a director of the Fitchburg Chamber of

Commerce, was an investigator for the U.S. Postal Department in the

Fitchburg Area from 1951 to 1955. He was a former chairman of the National

Association of Infantile Paralysis, the March of Dimes, an organizer and past

director of the United Fund of Greater Fitchburg, an organizer and past

director of the United Fund of Greater Fitchburg, a general chairman of the

Bicentennial Committee of the 200th anniversary in 1964. Mr. Kimball was an

outstanding civic leader.”

OVERALL CONDITION:

This snare drum is very well-preserved mainly because of the fact that there were only two previous owners before I purchased the drum. The shell is very clean and the DeLuxe plated hardware is also in very good-plus condition. All that was needed was a light dusting. I did clean out the tension rod threads just because I am picky. There are not many of these 6.5 x 14s around, maybe 4 or 5 that I know of.

As always, feel free to send me your thoughts, comments and photos if you have one of these drums.

Enjoy!

Mike Curotto