Autopsy on an old drum
Steve Turner
for me back in 1972. They were "Torodor" brand drums, which I later found out
was one of the many various brands that Pearl manufactured before they settled
on the "Pearl" brand and dumped all the others. I discovered this quite a few
years later when I took the lugs off and found the name "PEARL" stamped inside.
That was pretty interesting to me, because Pearl was gaining in popularity
all through the seventies, and that's the brand that the local music store
carried. Pearl continued using many of the same parts that were on my old
Torodor set (snare strainers, tone control knobs, tom mounts, etc.), and I
became quite the aficionado of drum construction as I studied all these
particulars.
I always liked those old Torodor drums, even if they weren't the greatest
quality, but they were better than some of the other junky "Made in Japan" drum
sets that I encountered back in the seventies, many of which I inherited from
other friends who gave up trying to play and didn't want them any more. I
created a lot of Frankenstein drum sets from all those drums! I took them
apart, swapped hardware, made new parts and pieces so different types of
hardware would marry up together, repaired broken shells and refinished them in
an attempt to get them to look like they belonged together. I was always
loathe to make any irreversible modifications to the Torodors though, but
eventually I did sand down the old red sparkle covering and repainted them;
first orange (!), then white, then eventually (after removing the wrap) an ugly
gray and white "spatter" finish. When I finally saved up enough money in the
early eighties to buy my Gretsch USA maple kit (that I still play today), I
sent the old Torodors down the road. I gave them to my little brother, and
they changed hands quite a few times before he finally got them back about five
years ago, then last year I took them back off his hands... They were in BAD
shape.
Incorrect rims, pitted chrome, rusty and broken parts, missing tension rods,
and worse, the shells were starting to delaminate due to being stored in old
barns and sheds with no climate control (in Missouri!). When I took them back
I thought maybe I could pull them together and get them fixed up again, but
today when I took a close look at the bass drum shell I decided it was time to
put it out of its misery.
I had noticed years ago that the shells were about 5/16" thick and had (what
appeared to be) a three-ply construction with no reinforcing rings, but during
one of my early repainting sessions I discovered (to my dismay) that the center
"ply" was actually not wood, but *masonite* (you know, that dense, dark brown
material that peg boards are made of?)... Yuck! Not exactly what you'd call a
"resonant musical instrument". And by this time, the shells were delaminating
pretty badly and the glue was hard and crumbly, so I decided to just start
peeling things apart to see how these old relics were put together.
I'd already noticed many years before that the inner and outer plies were made
of birch, but what I didn't realize until just today was that they were not
single plies, but were in fact very thin (3/32") sheets of three-ply baltic
birch plywood (high-quality stuff) bent into a circle and joined together with
an overlapping scarf joint. (There's a YouTube video showing Sonor making
drums from this very same material) If they had only used three layers of this
plywood instead of that center layer of 1/8" masonite, the drums probably would
have held together forever, and no doubt sounded better too! It was clearly a
cost-cutting measure, and indicative of what "Made in Japan" used to mean:
poor quality.
Now I just have to decide if it's worth saving any or all of the two 14" by 63"
sheets of forty year old baltic birch plywood that's full of nostalgic holes
and covered with gray and white splatter paint on one side... Anybody wanna
buy 'em? :-)
So there you have it; a small journey of discovery about some curious drums
from a bygone era. Sorry if this was boring as hell to those of you who are
players only and don't really care how drums are put together... but it was
pretty interesting for me, and nostalgic too! The ol' Torodors are forty years
old; we played a lot of gigs together, and it's kinda sad for me to finally see
them go. However, the lugs are still in usable shape (and quite attractive
too) so maybe I can use them with some fresh shells to build a little jazz kit
or something. :-)
--
"Our beer goes through thousands of quality Czechs every day."
(From a Shiner Bock billboard I saw in Austin some years ago)
To reply, eat the taco.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboyee/
new...@zoomnet.net
> from a bygone era. Sorry if this was boring as hell to those of you who are
Brought a tear to my eye ; - )
MN
Tom Joyce
"Steve Turner" <bbqb...@swtacobell.net.invalid> wrote in message
news:ija8gh$dib$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Amazing you were able to keep track of a drum set all those years. Makes me
wonder if I'll ever find my old Ducati.
Steve Turner
> Amazing you were able to keep track of a drum set all those years. Makes me
> wonder if I'll ever find my old Ducati.
Wow, a Ducati, eh? Just the name itself evokes a certain "cool" factor. I'm
always fascinated by vintage stuff. My buddy just finished restoring a
mid-seventies Triumph (a 250, I think?) and it's a really elegant looking
machine (even if they do break without even being touched).
--
See Nad. See Nad go. Go Nad!
Tom
sparkle set--little did they know they were really Pearl drums---ah bet then
again how about all those Faggot out here in drumland who think Gretch is
superior
"Steve Turner" <bbqb...@swtacobell.net.invalid> wrote in message
news:ijejkk$dl1$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
shooti...@gmail.com
thanks