Hi, Guys and Girls,
As always have another question for the experts...I have been looking at vintage marching snares, my problem is I can not find information to help educate myself on what types to buy, sizes, brands except the general Ludwig, Slingerland, Gretch, Premier. Is there a book or web site to help me understand these great pieces of history and what to look for.
As always, many thanks..
Bucky
Generally there isn't a lot of interest in those and a lot of them end up as parts donors for other drums or 12x15 tenors and snares get a new life as floor toms. I'm not familiar with any books on these type of drums in particular. There could be a website devoted to them but I've never searched for such a thing.
I agree that these vintage drums can be pretty cool but there just isn't a lot of usage for them so they are more of a "collectible" to have or display than something people still use. The technology of marching drums has progressed much further than that of regular drums due to the way that style of playing has evolved so, while it's still perfectly possible to use a vintage drum set to play a gig, it would be difficult for a marching squad to take to the field with old drums and remain competitive.
On the plus side this stuff tends to be relatively cheap to buy. Your best initial resource to learn about them would be old catalogs from the various companies. They tended to get pretty detailed about their various marching lines and some companies had special catalogs dedicated just to those drums. A lot of these catalogs have been scanned and can be found on the net.
I think it really depends upon what you are into. I have some antique "marching drums" from JC Haynes and Oliver Ditson that are like concert snares. Some really cool more modern marchers from Premiere as well as some vintage Walberg & Auge. I like and have the Slingerland "Boy Scout" marcher with the eagle and flags on it. As well as some old Ludwig US marchers with the painted eagle. Do some web searches to see what you find then enjoy the hunt looking to find them. Try this web site:
Thanks guys,
It really helped reading about all the folks collectables that were shown on this web site, at least I have seen the different companies that made these great looking drums. I myself would like to find the ones that need refinishing, as long as the parts to restore are there, and use as display. Again, thanks for your time and consideration.
Bucky
