Hi all! Been away for a while, had some life moments to deal with, but now I'm back into my drums. So, long story short, I came across an odd 4 piece 1941 Ludwig Top Hat set. The original owners son told me that his father bought it new as a 4 piece set in Chicago. The drums are 7X11 snare, 9X13, 14X16 and 14X26. He played an earlier Ludwig set prior to that. He added legs to the floor tom and changed the bass drum tom mount to one that would come apart easier after playing a gig. These are non-Ludwig pieces, but period correct.
Well, the snare drum was stolen from a gig and he replaced the snare drum with a 1937 Ludwig snare drum. The drums got mothballed and eventually ended up in his attic, sometime in the late 1940's. So, the finish of the three remaining original drums cracked, peeled and fell apart from the harsh temperature changes there. Then, a few years ago, after his son saw a 90th Anniversary Top Hat snare drum, he got the drums down from the attic and had all the drums refinished in Top Hat again. Unfortunately, most of the hardware was misplaced during a move, so all that was left were the drum shells, the floor tom legs and the bass drum tom mount. So, now present day... I decided to do a resto-mod Top Hat kit, the way I thought it should have looked back in 1941. I'm using brass and black hardware. I am utilizing the hardware that was left. All the mounting hardware will be black, the floor tom brackets and legs, the bass drum tom mount as will the muffler hardware. I am using a black Mapex snare drum stand and black DW bass drum spurs. All other hardware, hoops, lugs, rods etc... will be brass. I painted the insides of the drums white except, I masked off where the date stamps are and any other factory stamping. I ordered new wooden bass drum hoops and will put Top Hat inlays on them as well. I just finished the snare drum (minus the snare wires)and took some photos to show you. I thought it turned out beautiful! Looks like a Cadillac! I will post more pic's as I finish the remaining drums. Let me know what you think!
