It was a pleasant surprise to see a posting about Flat Jacks! I was a student of Ralph Kester in the early/mid 70's and a friend until he passed away. He was a brilliant drummer/teacher and engineer. He had a drum studio named Drumland in Lake Worth FL that he taught from and also sold drums, used as an assembling factory etc. He was also a Premier dealer. I am fortunate enough to have a double bass kit of Flat Jacks with custom cases that Ralph hooked me up with for helping him in the store. They sound great with Aquarian heads on them. I also have a prototype Flat Jack 12" tom that he had covered in a blue sparkle- the same kind of material like they used to use on the old Kustom PA Heads and PA cabinets.

A lot of people do not know that Ralph also invented the Ching-ring- the metal ring tambourine that mounts on the hi hat, the tubular guitar stand and the marching drum holders that everyone uses- the ones that hold the drum out and in front of the marching musician. He was also a fantastic drummer- beautiful hands. Got his NARD card in his early teens and also did a lot of touring. I was fortunate to have him as a teacher and a friend.

Merry Christmas

Russ

How about an article and a web page featuring him and his drums??...

This would be a great addition to the web site!

Would you do that??...

We just had a visitor do a story on his teacher and I did a story about mine many years ago.

Let me know

David

I just noticed your posting about the Flat Jacks. I recently acquired two pieces of a Flat Jack kit - the 16"/14" snare drum and a 22" diameter drum, which I assume to be the bass drum. I would love to get some more information about them.

I am curious about how the kit was set up for playing. The snare will fit onto a conventional snare stand because the snare side head is only 14". The snare stand basket supports the drum inside the 16" shell but outside the 14" snare head.

However, the 22" drum did not come with any sort of spurs to make it stand up on its own. The shell has only two holes other than the 10 lug holes. These holes are only 6.5" apart, so they are obviously not designed for spurs. Were these kits designed to be mounted on racks or on some kind of proprietary stands? What were the sizes of the other three drums in the kit? Is it possible that my 22" drum is a tom rather than a bass drum?

Thanks for your help.

Larry

Hi

Really interesting thread - I too have a set of Flat Jacks complete with the snare, original case and fittings. The skins are original and virtually unplayed.

Great information from Russ, I've looked everywhere for information on these drums to no avail. They were shipped to me from the US and cost twice as much to ship than I paid for the drums.

I must call in more often, great Forum

Cheers

Bob

Hi,

These drums are such rare birds. I never saw a set of Kesters in anything but maybe a Downbeat ad.

Please for the rest of us, could you post a pic or two.

Best regards,

Patrick

Hi Patrick

Unfortunately the pic I have on file is too large but here's a photobucket link:

I'll take some better pictures this week and post them

Regards,

Bob

Thanks Bob,

Cool pics.

Fascinating topic.

I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Patrick

Hi Bob,

I bought my Flat/Jacks set in 1962 minus the 16" floor tom. I have the case and two original heads. Last year, 2008, I took them apart, piece by piece, cleaned them and put on Ebony heads. The black looks great with the chrome. I took them to Hawaii each of the two times I moved in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The strap on my case wore out several years ago, so I use something else to keep the case intact. I still have my old 1960s Zildians with the set.

Thank you for your great pictures.

fjdrummer

Your pictures are great.

I'm writing an article for NSMD about Ralph Kester. If anyone has any extra personal information about him, or possibly surviving relatives, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks