Day one: Slingerland redux

After fixing up the four concert snare drums for my friend, I turned to the drum he gave me.

I'm offering a photo dump of each step of the process.

The badge, and the lack of date-stamnping on the inside of the shell -- helped me determine that this drum was likely made in the early 1970's. I will spend some time trying to date it more accurately using the serial number, but drum companies often used new serial numbers on older drums during transitional periods of manufacture. I'll see what I can find out.

After removing the lugs and taking off the wood hoops, you can see that there was a LOT of dust, which looked and felt like fine, dried mud -- my friend said this drum might have been to Burning Man.
I wiped down everything with a damp cloth to get the worst of the dirt off, and to get a closer look.

Underneath the dirt, the Mahoghany ply shell shows some gouges and scuffs, enough that I'll elect to clean and sand lightly, rather than attempt a full restoration. I like the patina, anyway; and there's no need to remove it all.

The maple hoops are another story. They get the brunt of the abuse on a drum this old, and show compression from the lug clamps and some cracking on the lower hoop at the snare cutouts. Maple is a more brittle wood, and can easily crack under strain. I am hoping that because the cracks are partial, I can figure out how to repair them. I'm envisioning gently and carefully clamping the cracked pieces back into alignment, ideally in a bench vise, then drilling small holes, carefully installing wooden dowels and glue, clamping all that in place and letting dry. I'll talk to some woodworking friends to see what they suggest, as the cracks aren't all the way through and I'd like to save the original hoops if I can. (Plus, new wooden hoops are not cheap.)

This wood already glows a little after an initial wipe-off of dirt. Once it's cleaned more and then waxed, it will positively shimmer!

The worst of the gouging and scuffing appears at the part of the shell most likely to have been scuffed, by a belt buckle or jeans waistline button.

This right here is a big part of why I won't try for a restoration, but simply make this a player again.
Even sanded out, there will be a depression that can't be filled attractively with wood putty.

Attempting anything with wood inlay or parquetry is way above my abilities.
And as I said, I actually like that the drum shows signs of honest wear from use.

The metal hardware, chrome-plated and very simple, should clean up nicely with a good wipedown and an application of some Quik-Glo.

Stay tuned. I'll take photos at each step of the rebuild and share them here.

Happy drumming!

Vintage drum: Slingerland parade drum, 14 x 10

My friend dropped off a stack of drums today.
The four concert drums with metal shells I'm going to clean up for him to use with his radical drum corps. The fifth drum, a wooden parade drum, he said was mine to keep.

It's filthy and needs a lot of cleaning, along with replacement heads.
I'm guessing from the hardware and badge that it's probably from the 1960s.

Here are photos of the drum as I received it today. As I take it apart and clean it up over the next few weeks, I'll post periodic updates.

  

The hardware appears to be all original, which hints at a 1960s vintage.

I love the old-school drum key slot (below).
If this comes back I'll want to look for a period-correct key. It's filthy and looks either paint- or mud-splattered.
But I think it should clean up nicely, especially with some replacement heads (Ambassador top and bottom).

Not sure what I'll do about the finish. One friend has suggested I simply clean off the dirt and apply some wax. There are a few places where the stain has worn away but I think it's honest wear, and I may just sand it lightly and let it be. I'll ask the guys at Revival Drum Shoip what they recommend.

I think this will be a nice project to distract me from the pandemic over the next few weeks.

back to basics, and then some: warmups

Even with my dreams of playing again with UBB dashed for who knows how long, I still really want to play. This weekend I went back to basics, spending time with my old copy of Stick Control, playing nothing but eighth notes in various stickings, end on end.

Stick Control is the most boring drum book in the world. And it's designed to be. The whole purpose of the book is to give the drummer a series of patterns to be played over and over again, with various stickings, at different tempi, al of which is designed to build chops and ease of motion.

I use a metronome, of course.
A metronome is a great help. It keeps me honest, and lets me know whether my evenness is slipping and I need to re-focus.

Below is the first page of Stick Control. I use it often. (If you click on it it should open larger in a new window.)

This weekend, I obtained a few new warmups, in use in modern (post-1990) corps.
Here's a nice eighth-note exercise that mixes up sticking to keep things interesting.


A more challenging exercise utilizes sixteenth notes with a check pattern in between each variation.

Finally, I got this diddle exercise, which moves the diddle around inside a fivelet pattern, requiring both timing and flow. This one is really fun to play, but I have to take it really slow and count.

Because I'm applying for a part-time job that may suck up ALL my free time, it's possible I won't have as much time to hang out with my practice pad for awhile. But when I do there will be plenty of material to work with.

Happy chopping!

Fireworks need to go out of style

We've been hearing the sound of fireworks for a few nights now. It's always like this in the week leading up to July 4th. And between the additional disruptions caused by police misuse of CS Gas and LRAD (noise bombs) on protestors, the last thing we really need is for full-blown fireworks on every block.
Although most Indian reservations were ordered to stop selling fireworks in Oregon and Washington a few years ago, there are still plenty of unused illegal fireworks in the Portland metro area, and our 15-year-old cat is already showing signs of distress.
Three years ago, the entire western half of the Columbia Gorge was set ablaze by kids playing with fireworks in a fire danger zone.
Add to this stories of dogs literally collapsing from cardiac arrest because of M-80's being shot off, Veterans who suffer PTSD from being triggered by the noise and flash.
I have to admit that, even for extroverts like me, the time has come to put fireworks to rest and find other ways to celebrate. Make music, do skits, have a poetry slam or a cook-off. Turn the stereo speakers to the windows and have a dance party.
Get creative.
We need to stop using fireworks.