Hi,

Another restoration completed. I got this drum about 10 yrs. ago from Stan at The Professional Drum Shop in Hollywood, CA. Stan was selling this drum for the owner, John Hernandez of the Oingo Boingo Band.

1930-32* LUDWIG & LUDWIG 5x14 MAHOGANY/DECORATIVE INLAY SUPER-SENSITIVE MODEL

*I'm calling it 1930-32 based on a few facts: 1. Listed on pgs. 18 and 22 of the 1930 & 1932 L&L catalogs is the "Ludwig Super Bass Drum" with a "Decorative Inlay Finish on Shell". 2. There is no mention of a tone control in the 1932 catalog so it can be assumed that tone controls were added after 1932. 3. This drum has no tone control. Both catalogs show the "New Ludwig Super-Sensitive Snare Drum - Solid Mahogany Shell - Nickel Parts" but there is no mention of the "Decorative Inlay Finish" so what we have here is a slight omission of data in the 1930 & 1932 catalogs as L&L obviously offered their Mahogany Standards, Supers and Super-Sensitives with the "Decorative Inlay Finish" option. I have seen all three examples. This ends the geek-minutiae section of this article.

Thanks again goes to my good friend and fellow collector Bill Wanser for pointing me in the right direction as to the correct dating of this drum. Those old L&L catalogs are invaluable when it comes to dating a drum.

The Shell:

The solid mahogany shell is in good shape but shows its age. The "faux" decorative inlay decals are in really good shape and are 95% intact. I used Formby's lemon oil to clean and shine everything up. The interior is pretty clean and the maple reinforcement rings have no separation. There is an "N" marked in pencil inside the shell that I assume means "nickel hardware", I've also seen this on Slingerland shells. The brass oval badge is clean with a tight grommet.

The Hardware:

All of the nickel plated hardware was dirty, grimy and very "clouded". Simple Green got the dirt and grime off but in some areas I had to resort to some Simple Green and OOOO steel wool (yeah, yeah, I know but you can't tell where I needed to do that so let it be). I decided not to have my platers "color" (a plater's term for polishing the nickel on a buffing wheel) the nickel hardware as I think that would have created the "carpet doesn't match the drapes" syndrome, to wit, the "hardware doesn't match the shell" with respect to the age of this drum. It did take a lot of elbow grease and Cape Cod Polishing Cloths but I am happy with the results. The snare guards did protect the snare wires like they are supposed to do as one guard was pretty bent up so I had my machinist Abe Abello straighten the guard for me. You can't tell the difference between the two guards. The Super and Super-Sensitive mechanisms work perfectly and both sets of wires are intact and were able to be used in this restoration.

Of-the-era calf heads added the final touch to this fancy snare drum of yesteryear.

Enjoy!

Mike Curotto