Hi,
Another one enters the collection. This one came from Matt Middleton of Ohio Drum Works. One phone call, some photos and bada-bing bada-boom, a deal was struck!
1935 LUDWIG & LUDWIG 5x14 GREEN SPARKLE SUPER-LUDWIG MODEL
THE SHELL:
1932 was the advent of Green Sparkle at the L&L factory. This is a transitional drum that was born just before the change-over to the 1936 (25 year Silver Anniversary) Imperial lug-era. The Green Sparkle is in good-plus shape with very little "cancer spots" that we are used to seeing on Green Sparkle of this age. I was able to get a few layers of schmutz off of the shell and the Green Sparkle came back to life quite nicely. The white interior is fairly clean but definitely shows its age. There is a nice date stamp of "3508" and a cool old label from Green's Music Store of Canton, Ohio; you know we are talking old here as the phone number is "DIAL 43522". I love little artifacts like this. The solid mahogany shell is in-round and the reinforcement rings are intact. The brass oval badge is clean with a tight grommet.
THE HARDWARE:
From the photos that were originally presented to me I thought that I was getting nickel plated hardware. It turns out that the hardware is chrome plated. I think this adds a little more rarity to the drum. All of the chrome plated hardware was in great shape and was easy to clean and polish. The Super mechanism is the Pat. Pending 1924-1935 version that is in perfect working condition. The bottom rim is the 1930s stamped, (top-to-bottom) "Super Ludwig" as compared to the 1920s engraved, (side-by-side) "Super-Ludwig". A few broken collar hooks, a bent tension rod and a missing snare guard clip were all that was needed to get the hardware back to catalog-correct. The original Super wires were pretty mangled so here you go Bill Wanser! I have many Super wire sets so a correct replacement was not a problem. The 1932-35 tone control is all there and works fine but the felt need some re-stitching.
Modern-day Stern Tanning calf heads rounded out this cleaning and light restoration.
Enjoy!
Mike Curotto
