L&L peacock Marcher. This was before I owned it. Its now shiney and complete and sounds great. Its unusual nature and condition are always a big hit at the shows. . .

A couple of questions for you regarding the unidentified drum. 1. Have you check with the company of fifers and drummers here in CT? They tend to have a lot of information on older corps that are now defunct and some of the older folks involved with the museum might know either where the other drums ended up to check for maker information. 2. Do you currently march with any fife and drum corps and attend any of the summer musters? If so I would be happy to take a look at the drum and also show it to a few other people that attend these things and possibly get some info on the maker.

The date of the drum could be anywhere from the late 1860's to the erly teen in the 20th century. The ears in the picture (though blurry) look like they have brass tops on the (some of these had rope breaks on them as well to prevent the ears from sliding) and the last time I see them appear in a catologue is in the 1911 Excelsior Drum works which is here on this site. I think that the drum is most likely going to be from the 1870's just because the size was not very popular in the early part of the 20th century. I have not seen any evidence that any of the modern drum companies that made marching rope drums (Gretsch, Ludwig, Slingerland etc.) ever used that style ear and I have never seen them on Cooperman drums (unless by special order or restoration), Moeller, George B. Stone or Eames. I have seen those ears on Lyon & Healy, A.G.S. Excelsior (Excelsior drum works, A.G.S. Philidelphia), John C. Haynes and several others. I would love to see some clearer pictures.

CT PRO:

1) Actually I have not asked anyone at COFAD about it. Wasn't sure who to ask.

2) I belong to the Sudbury Ancients. Not sure yet which musters I'll make this year. I'll send you a PM.

3) I will take some pics of the current state of the drum and post here soon. I say current state because the heads, ropes and ears were changed since that picture - but we kept it all.

grantro and wadsmoe:

I think it sounds great together. I have some vids on the tube with different kits. D' Drummer

tdennis & CT Pro - Here are pics of the strainer and other parts of the unidentified drum.

The snare strainer and snare butt end are gretsch.

Gretsch had a page in their 1941 catalog dedicated to their "Colonial" drums, custom built to order. The photo on the page is an example of one of these snares, w/ a Round Badge & a "Parade snare Strainer". It's very possible that DionneDrummer's snare is a Gretsch custom ordered "Colonial" drum from the 50's w/ the "Renown" strainer & Round Badge removed.

Here are picks of the vent hole and seam.

sadly I no longer have it

[IMG]http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4135/5441434399_5e8bc25835_z.jpg[/IMG]

15x12, silver sparkle, NOB hardware.

Absolute beast of a snare drum.

I know where there are a couple of Gretsch rope tension drums, I will contact the owner and see if he can take a picture of the drums for identification. The only problem I see with this is that there is no badge on the drums and the rope drums that I have seen that were made by Gretsch have all had badges on them. There were a few drum makers along the way that would use whatever they had or could find to put a drum together, sometimes using other manufacturers parts and sometimes making them from scratch with what ever pieces or scraps that had laying around.