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.

On this Independence Day

I was raised to be a proud, grateful American.
Proud of an experiment in freedom that gave the world a new way to think about self-determination. Grateful that my ancestors, escaping anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe, had a shining, golden place to come to and in which to rebuild their lives. Growing up, I celebrated every Independence Day with delight, with light and noise. 
Independence Day is the ultimate extrovert's celebration.

Then, over time, corners of the rug started getting pulled back, to reveal all the bad things about how our country was created and founded. Over the last decade or so I have learned that slavery was more than a horrible idea, that it in fact was a key pillar of our nation's founding. I have learned that we haven't come as far as we thought we had on issues of racial, gender and social justice, that there are still so many white people who insist on hating those who differ from them and insist on raising their kids and grandkids to feel the same way. I have learned that there are a lot of white Americans who are itching to fight another Civil War, who cannot wait to blow black and brown people and their allies back to the Stone Age and dance on their bodies.
The bloodlust and bigotry in our nation has not gone away.

I have loved rudimental drumming since I first learned of it as a schoolgirl. 
Something about it grabbed me by the collar and fired up my musical ears and inspired me to become a musical mathematician myself, to join the long line of rudimental drummers and keep the tradition alive.
Never mind that the long line of rudimental drummers was almost entirely male and nearly all white; I ignored that (or wasn't taught to notice it, or maybe I did notice it and wanted to be a drummer so badly that I didn't care -- I don't really know) and was all in.

Today, while my arthritic hands are not contest material by any means, I can more than hold my own in a community band drum line and I play well enough to really enjoy myself. I play almost every day now, partly as a way to deal with my shpilkes (Yiddish - restlessness) and partly because I still love the artform.

But the artform has its roots in a tradition of war and conquest, and I cannot deny that either.

This is where I have to sit in my ambivalence and stew on it.
Because while I still love the artform, while I still love the feel of picking up a pair of sticks and playing rolls, paradiddles and ruffs, I feel weird about the other messages that my drumming sends, the stories it reinforces.
And I wonder what my part is in reinforcing those old messages, that old history which so desperately needs to be corrected (since it cannot be undone).
Drums were present on the battlefield in every major Civil War battle. They drummed out a throbbing, painful pulse at "America First" rallies during the first and second World Wars; KKK gatherings and even some lynchings. And they continue to bring up vestiges of American colonialism and American exceptionalism that lately have made me sit less comfortably with the artform.

How can I turn my talent and skill into something for good? How do I take something rooted in the art of war and conquest, and turn it into a call for real justice?

I don't have the answer. This is probably the deepest I've ever gone in asking questions about the roots of my chosen artform and instrument, and these questions are uncomfortable.
I think they're supposed to be.

I'll still play on my pad every day -- it's therapeutic -- but I honestly don't know what I'll do about Independence Day this year.

when drum companies don't deliver

After sharing my initial testing of the Drumslinger pad, friends on various FB groups warned me that the company had been plagued by delivery issues to the point where people had been waiting over a year for pads they'd ordered and paid for. They warned me that if I were considering buying a pad from the company, my money would be better spent elsewhere.

Similar compaints have been voiced for several years about Xymox, another company whose pads I generally like and which are represented in my collection.
So far, I've found that kindness and good manners go a long way with Xymox. I'm still waiting on a pad I ordered last winter, but I knew that production issues would delay the pad before I placed my order and I was willing to wait. The COVID-19 shutdown has obviously thrown further wrenches into the works, further delaying my pad. I'll post about that pad later.

With Drumslinger, I decided to do a little investigating.

I went to their web site, noted that it hadn't been updated since before Christmas 2019, and emailed them to inquire. I got an email response within an hour, explaining why the web site hadn't been updated ("most pads are now ordered through apps, and the web site is the last to be updated," said a respondent name Bill). I was given a one-time discount code and encouraged to place an order.

The next evening, I decided to go further. I sent another email asking for specifics about differences between a couple of pad models. So far, there has been no response.

At the same time, I sent an email to Rudimental Drumming, a company based in the Netherlands that makes pads of a similar design and price range to Drumslinger. I asked questions about specific differences between pad models and also asked about production time. The very next morning, I received an informative and helpful reply.

Based on ths limited experience, I would be more inclined to order a pad from Rudimental Drumming and wait for the several weeks' turnaround.
Add to this the fact that one of Drumslinger's biggest endorsers publicly ended his relationship with the company and soon became an endorser of RD, and my hunch was confirmed.

So I'll keep the used Drumslinger pad for awhile, and plan to purchase an RD pad for my collection sometime later this summer. I'll compare the two pads and report back.

One Drummer Chopping: Offworld Percussion Shuttle pad

Offworld Percussion has in many ways become the n'est plus ultra of marching practice pads, simply by dint of their consistency, quality control and overall lack of drama. They just make a good, reliable product and that's why so many drummers -- including me -- own an Offworld pad.

I recently scored one of the first generation Shuttle pads from Offworld's warehouse. They had five of them still in the bag and blew them out on Instagram. Right place at the right time, basically.

The "Dark Matter" playing surface is thinner than what's used on the flagship Invader series pads, and it feels harder and brighter as a result.
Still, I can see why this little pad was so popular. It feels and plays well (especially if you play on Kevlar), and it travels well. If I had to choose between this and my Invader for longer workouts, I'd stick with the Invader as the thicker rubber is more forgiving and less fatiguing. But on the fly, the Shuttle is a nice pad to take to the park or on a road trip. The thick rubber bottom gives it a non-skid surface for tabletop playing, or even a short stint on your lap.

I think they discontinued it in favor of their Outlander series, which uses the same thickness of rubber in a circular design.

I might end up keeping this for the collection. I kind of like it.

UPDATE: Offworld is currently producing prototypes for a second generation shuttle pad; one will be made with a rubber surface only, and the other will be made to take their snare drum cartridge insert (like the Aurora and BYOSphere pads).
I think I'll hang onto my 1st gen Shuttle and call it good, as I was unimpressed with the Aurora pad and cartridge and sold them. Offworld needs to utilize much stronger magnets so the snare cartridges doesn't pop out on an accented note before I'll consider buying one again.