Congrats on the School Festival. In my opinion, having "school" in the name might turn a lot of people off. But think of this drum as a Jazz Festival on steroids. I cut down a 1960 14x10 marching snare to 14x6.75 and it sounds amazing. It has a natural mahogany interior and I applied a couple coats of poly to brighten it up. I was lucky that it also came with COB hoops, which really help with the sound.

I bet the longer tension rods were bottoming out on the lug wall, since there really isn't much internal distance inside of the small Classic lugs. Not sure how long the original tension rods were, but someone will probably chime in. Also not sure about finding replacements in nickle. Same with the nickle P-83 and butt. You could start a thread in the Wanted section. Once you polish up the nickle hoops and lugs, they will almost shine like chrome, but with a very slight yellow hue.

You said this is a pre-serial drum, but is there a date stamp on the inside of the shell? I'm wondering if the chrome P-83 is original. Is the shell interior natural or painted? Is the shell maple or mahogany? Please post some pictures of this drum.

-Tim

Ray. my preserial number School festival is blue sparkle, it has a tad longer than 1 1/2 tension rods on it, mine is 100% stock/factory. one of the best sounding snare drums I own.

Thanks guys. I am on lunch out in the field today. I can upload pics later when I get home. Thanks for the tension rod length, Mark. The rods that came with it are way too long. I'll keep an eye out for some.

Tim, the drum is mahogany, poplar, mahogany. The interior is painted white Resa-cote. There is a faint red ink date stamp but I can't make it out. The finish is red sparkle, not glass glitter. Here are the pics from the seller. I bought the drum from a forum member and am happy with the purchase. I'm just wanting to get it back to stock condition.

[IMG]http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/pandfac/tno_zps4843cb2b.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/pandfac/ton_zps79b3cc2a.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/pandfac/tn_zps4e8c4580.jpg[/IMG]

I had one of those with a keystone badge in the early 70's briefly.It was destroyed during a flood in a band members basement.,in fact all of my MIJ drums were,except the MIJ snare,which still have.

That was one of the best sounding drums I ever had,and now I'm thinking about getting another one.That's one beautiful drum you have ther,and hopefullt it sounds it.My drum had a nice fat sound,but plenty of cut and that beautiful woody tone Ludwig snares are known for.Best of luck with it.

Steve B

Thanks for the pictures. It looks great and it really shouldn't cost too much to get it back to how you want it. A nickle P-83 might be a little costly, but that is something you could always install when one becomes available. Until you find the throw-off, the tension rods should be easy to find and will allow you to start enjoying this snare.

Have you thought about heads? You could always go with the typical coated and snare Ambassadors. I tried a coated Ambassador, but it was too "ringy" for me. I had a Remo Fiberskyn head, so I put it on and it sounds really good. To my ears, it has just the right amount of "ping". Just like tamadrm mentioned above, this snare can really cut.

-Tim

I love coated Ambassadors and tried that out and liked it a lot. It had a blown out Fiberskyn on it. That had to go!

Now the drum is in about 100 pieces getting shined up.

Great drum and glad to read it is in complete restore. Only way to go.

All of the hardware looks chrome to me. Cleaned and polished that will be a show stopper!!

Thanks for the pics.

Creighton