Another eBay Bargain

[p83]

Originally Posted by BEC

Too much? Find another one then.....(I owned a BG set and snare drum 35 years ago.)
Chet Falzerano would be the guy to ask/consult about this drum. Chet's the expert imo.
The price seems in line with other BG drums.

this is my favorite line when discussing collector drums that people think are overpriced.

go find another one and we can talk price all day. otherwise - put up or shut up.

[leedybdp]

Originally Posted by p83

this is my favorite line when discussing collector drums that people think are overpriced.

go find another one and we can talk price all day. otherwise - put up or shut up.

So, IF you want one of these, and IF you find one available, you must be willing and able to pony up the fundage that is necessary to satisfy your desire (or your ego). Or, just take that money, and buy a nice new vehicle to transport your oh so common drums.

[Rob the drummer]

Originally Posted by kdg

I see. So now my question is did Gladstone do this for every client or was Goldberg the first client which required him to build a prototype? And did he ever make another metal shell drum? Here is a picture of Goldenberg with a Gladstone drum, but I'm not sure it is his. It is of some note that the stand for the drum looks to be the same as the Ted Reed photo on his Syncopation book and on the BG book by Chet Falzerano.

My understanding is that at least a few of those stands were made. I'm not sure if Gladstone made the stands or if a friend of his did.

[O-Lugs]

I HIGHLY recommend you all check out a movie called "Who the !@#$%^ is Jackson Pollock?" in order to get a better idea of how the art world works. And, again, that's what this drum is, at this point in time. If people just want to see the utilitarian aspect of this drum, then most of us wouldn't make that much money in a year of gigs to be able to consider it. However...Ringo could afford it and put it in a display case above the huge stone fireplace at his cabin in the Alps....

It probably doesn't even sound as good as an Acrolite with Ambassadors on it -by today's standard of what a snare drum is "supposed" to sound like. Billy played orchestral music and the drums all had calfskin heads...You do the math.

[jbohan6]

I disagree with most of the comments in this thread.

The two people involved with this story- Gladstone and Goldberg- are of incredible significance to the percussive arts of the 20th century. Coupled with the scarcity, vintage drum market demand, and the fact that it was the personal instrument of the maker (who was a highly regarded professional musician as well) are all credible factors to explain price.

It belongs in a museum or with someone who has the hands to truly use it.

I think it's absolutely bonkers for someone to guess a wimpy acrolite would even hold a candle to a drum like this. Have you ever played a Gladstone? Or heard one of the Lang percussion Gladstone reproductions? You might reconsider..

Thanks for sharing the ebay post. Very informative.

[thin shell]

Originally Posted by Rob the drummer

My understanding is that at least a few of those stands were made. I'm not sure if Gladstone made the stands or if a friend of his did.

Those stands are a WA top snare basket and a KLIEGL BROS no. 740 cast base light base.

More info here.

https://www.drumforum.org/threads/an...1/post-1813106



http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/show...92&postcount=8

[O-Lugs]

Originally Posted by jbohan6

I disagree with most of the comments in this thread.

The two people involved with this story- Gladstone and Goldberg- are of incredible significance to the percussive arts of the 20th century. Coupled with the scarcity, vintage drum market demand, and the fact that it was the personal instrument of the maker (who was a highly regarded professional musician as well) are all credible factors to explain price.

It belongs in a museum or with someone who has the hands to truly use it.

I think it's absolutely bonkers for someone to guess a wimpy acrolite would even hold a candle to a drum like this. Have you ever played a Gladstone? Or heard one of the Lang percussion Gladstone reproductions? You might reconsider..

Thanks for sharing the ebay post. Very informative.

An Acrolite will hold more than a candle to the sound of a snare drum designed for orchestral work. Anyone who says that an Acrolite is wimpy doesn't know much about snare drums. Like it or not, the Acrolite is almost the same drum as the Supra and the Supra is the most recorded drum in history. What makes an Acrolite wimpy, I wonder? Because it isn't as pretty? I guarantee you that in a blindfold test you couldn't tell one snare drum from ten others. The Gladstone is clearly a superior mechanical work as far as drums are concerned, but for all the fanciness, it's still a snare drum. All of the reasons that make the Gladstone drum a genius design, aren't aspects that are applicable to anything other than a specialized orchestral application and that's it. The Acrolite is MUCH more versatile for today's general use. In fact the tuning system that Gladstone came up with was entirely because of the nature of calfskin heads needing to be constantly tweaked during the course of a performance. Synthetic heads made that system unnecessary.

And yes I've heard the Gladstones and the Lang remakes...nice drums...but not so remarkable in their sound, tbh. They sound like snare drums -just dressed up in fancier duds!

[leedybdp]

For most of today's drummers--even those who play drum solos--the sound of one snare drum in live venues is indistinguishable from the sound of any other snare drum. It's a BANG with snares sound. In recordings, any snare drum will be tweaked by the recording engineer to sound the way the producer wants it to sound. Your $49,000 museum piece snare drum won't sound any better than another person's $49 garage sale snare drum when the sound reinforcement board operator or the record producer takes control. Call me a cynic, and I'll proudly accept the label.

[BosLover]

Originally Posted by leedybdp

For most of today's drummers--even those who play drum solos--the sound of one snare drum in live venues is indistinguishable from the sound of any other snare drum. It's a BANG with snares sound. In recordings, any snare drum will be tweaked by the recording engineer to sound the way the producer wants it to sound. Your $49,000 museum piece snare drum won't sound any better than another person's $49 garage sale snare drum when the sound reinforcement board operator or the record producer takes control. Call me a cynic, and I'll proudly accept the label.

Sorry, but I will have to disagree with some of what you said. The solid maple 5x14 DW Craviotto snare which my son Dan uses for rock gigs has much more definition and a crack and sounds completely different than his Ludwig snares which he uses for jazz gigs and musical theater. The Craviotto is also has a much louder, in your face sound. The DW Craviotto is not well suited for small ensemble acoustical jazz gigs at all. This sound is just all wrong.

For big band work he has a Fibes chrome on fiberglass (the model Buddy Rich used) which has incredible dynamics, projection and response and is very different sounding then his DW or Ludwig snares. When I'm at one of his jazz gigs sitting in the audience I can clearly hear the difference between his Ludwig black beauty or supraphonic which are both noticeably crisper than his wood shelled snare drums. And the Fibes has a very different sound in concert.

And, of course, there are the DW Edge snare drums that make the Craviotto sound tame by comparison. Dan has around a dozen snare drums and all of them get used to compliment a specific style of music or are used depending on the venue. The right snare drum does make a difference.

I will agree that heavily eq'd snare drums will pretty much sound the way the recording engineer wants them to sound in the studio, but playing live is a different story.

[O-Lugs]

Well yes and no... Playing live is a mixed bag of nuts, too. A bad room is a bad room....like a lot of glass and hard floors....then people come in....the room deadens....and so on. In a concert hall where the absolute focus is on the snare drum, then maybe I'd hear a difference. But, I'll bet that if Billy Gladstone were to have played an Acrolite, then it would still sound just as great. He was just the top dude in his field in his day and he made some cool drums that fit his needs. There are a limited number of them and they are all cool. But they aren't utility drums -unless you're the snare drummer for the London Philharmonic or one of those dudes. It would be great to hear someone like that playing a Gladstone snare drum -because that's the environment they were meant to be played in. But putting one in the context of a drum set and then trying to convince me that there is a real difference between it and several other snare drums..? I don't think it would be easy....but I'd STILl like to have one because I love to push levers and adjust adjusters, etc. That's a BIG pro of the Gladstone drums -levers and contraptions to flip, pull, switch!