So strange! That 'looks like' Tear-drop lugs from an old Premier drum. Where do you get heads for that thing? Bust a head and you're dead in the water! I dig the three vent holes on it, makes it look like an old Buick! lol

Cool drum... weird.

John

I guess if you owned this drum, you'd have to:

1) make sure nothing ever happened to to wooden hoops for the heads, and

2) you'd have to be really good at re-doing the calfskin!

...and that wouldn't be me!

Wow!

Bill

Thanks John, I was wondering about the knobby thing under the center Buick hole..lol. Looks like maybe something to help support the curve in the drum from wanting to separate or pull apart? Guess you'd have to make a mold for making a flesh hoop to stretch a calf-skin over for a new head...I have no idea. Probably easier than making a new rim.

Wouldn't be me either Bill...lol

I read that the drum was used in this:

Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Momente” for solo soprano, 4 choir groups and 13 instrumentalists

(Europe Version 1972 [1962 – 1964/1969] + excerpt from Donaueschingen Version 1965)

My best guess would be either a tone control or some kind of internal pitch-shifter maybe. It looks more like a push/pull knob than a tone control knob. Boy, did you find a weird one there. I've never seen anything shaped like it with the exception of North drums maybe. Your guess is as good as mine as what that knob-thingy is on there. It just looks so 'Premier drum co.' though because of the lugs.

John

Wow....And I thought the Trixon "Speedfire" bass drums were wierd. Thats the WEIRDEST drum I have ever seen.

I guess, tho, that when it was made, there were plenty of music store people who could tuck a calf head, so all you needed was the rim to be in good shape. They must have just cut a piece of calfskin to the shape of the that drum and tucked it. Today, that skill would be tough to find. And today where would you find a calf head big enough?

I think this drum would be a challenge to tune...Just sayin'...Definitely out of the ordinary!!

Cheers

You know, it's funny you should say that. As I studied the photo of the drum, I thought to myself, I bet that drum can be tuned to three distinct pitches! I would tune the small end tight (high) the middle section a bit less tight, and the large end slack. You'd get three sounds out of one drum. I bet that small end tuned tight would sound like a timbale, or even a bongo, the middle like a rack tom and the large end tuned low, would provide bass/bottom end. I'm just speculating about zone tuning, but I bet it could be done with some tweaking. Maybe that's the point of the shape! To get different sound zones. Like three drums in one. Now that makes sense to me. Otherwise, it's just a freak/oddity of the drum world.

John

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