On drums...

Looking at ebay, and this thing popped up with a BIN, so I BINed it.






Advertised that it had no snares, and that seemed like a large but not insurmountable challenge.

What I had not counted on were metric heads. The snare side arrived with a wood shim to take up the excess distance between a metric rim and an international head.



Crazy old design! The most outrageous damper mechanism I've ever seen. Probably a way of keeping it from rattling:






Beautiful and straightforward mechanical device for the parallel snare mechanism:



One of these snare holders needs a bit of repairing, but I think I can machine away the broken material and screw a plate into position that will solve the problem and remain invisible. Details of the snare holders and fittings, and the "Sterne" (black with stars) wrap:








The gates are, miraculously, still intact:



No point in worrying about heads if I can't make the wires, but given success there, I'm going to have some calf heads made for it.

So not a story with an ending, but an interesting project being teased along. Been a little busy with drums around here lately.

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Gregory

GREAT!!!

A perfect project for the spring-summer.


Congratulations Gregory...

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Goki - short from Goran

Let the good drums roll!!!

So, 5 years later, got tired of having this sit in the closet. So I dropped the difficult problems associated with re-engineering a parallel system with extra length snare wires, and opted for a standard set from which I can at least get an idea of what this drum might sound like.

Trying to keep things metric, I found some some stainless steel 5mm eye hooks and thumb nuts with enough standoff to have a length of adjustment, did a little filing on the eyes so that the snare string didn't bind as the eyes went into the housings, tied a couple of square knots and voila:

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Gregory

Nice, clean, elegant solution.

The photo work continues to be as impressive as the project itself.

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Cliff

River City Trio

What if we did all have the same opinions?

You gonna play that thing?

Been dialing it in. Likes much lower tunings than the Lite, particularly on the snare side.

I would have liked to have tried a new one, when the holders were parallel to each other. I suspect the reason for all the later snare bars was because it was impossible to keep the holders permanently aligned.

I have to hear it in practice to really know what it's doing.

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Gregory

Gregory,
just a thought:

(second picture) If You run the thread through the outer holes of the snare strand, then the snare will sit totally flat on the head...

It's a bit better for the snare side head...

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Goki - short from Goran

Let the good drums roll!!!

Thanks, Goki. I tried that and it didn't work. Made the snares rattle under any tension.

Pearl states that a more open sound results from using the inner holes, and a drier, crisper sound from the outer ones, but that doesn't seem to apply here.

Something to do with the shape of the snare beds, I guess, or the angle of the strainer housings. I tried inverting the attachment points at the housings (resulting in a less severe string angle) but that just made the wires rattle more.

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Gregory

It was worth a couple of tries, I guess...

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Goki - short from Goran

Let the good drums roll!!!

I really did appreciate the suggestion. It would have been the right advice for a standard setup,... although I don't know exactly what they meant by crisp or more open, since I experienced the exact opposite of what I understood those to mean, on my drum.

I'm not too pleased with this drum unless it is tuned very high. Otherwise, it sounds two-dimensional. Still working with tuning, though.

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Gregory