Looks like that will be a beauty Jim! Keep up the great work.

Thanks!

I'm going to measure the thickness of this Ludwig resonant head while it is off. I can do so very accurately with a ball anvil micrometer...

I'm also curious if those lug screws I posted before are the right ones? Those seems to be the most prevalent on both drums but the second drum I received had both hoops wrong... There are another three or four other types of screws as well.

I'll do my standard "pooling" of parts, and find the best ones for my keeper, and then segregate those further so the "best of the best" parts are on the badge side and get worse as they go around to the back side. I like to make them present as good as possible...

I may have to buy some parts for the throw mechanism The second drum has had some damage to the threaded studs- one spins freely and is bent; the other is not spinning but bent.

First drum shell is polished and ready for reassembly. One lug casing screw was (is) missing so I'll find a replacement when I put it together.

I chased the threads on the knobs (10-32 thread) but I can't get a die on the studs very far... Considering an entire new assembly but that's another $100+... Things work super-smooth with clean threads...

The Band

I'm very interested to know the thickness of those heads.

It looks to me like those are the correct tension rods for that era of drum. You can double check the measurement if you want. I think they are 1-5/8" from the end of the thread to under the flange of the head but I don't have one handy to double check at the moment.

The length matches on all of them, but I have a pile of "other" ones collected from both drums.

Thank you for the vote of confidence however. I will go through them and find the 20 nicest ones.

70's Ludwig "X-Thin" Head thickness:2.5 mills (0.0025 inch)

~80's Remo Ambassador Snare Head thickness: ~2.7 mills (0.0027 inch)

I didn't actually measure to the tenths, but eyeballed it. The Remo is thicker, but just barely.The Remo is also well beyond it's useful life- there are holes where the snares ate through at the bearing edges so brand new, it may be a bit thicker. I think those are advertised as 3 mil and that is probably accurate.

This is one of the tension rods from my 70's Supra. Notice the head profile and overall size.

Hope that helps!

That helps a lot!

And those are the ones I thought were the right ones.

Thank you!

Here's an update: the one I'm selling is nearly done. One bent and stripped threaded rod has been repaired- I cleaned it with acetone and flowed superglue in the joint to keep it from spinning. I chased the threads on the stud and nut as well. It works silky smooth! It can't be turned all the way in, but it has more than enough adjustment range to function.

All the other parts were carefully checked and straightened.

Everything was cleaned while it was apart too- this is going to be a sweet player!

Hey J!m.

Great thread. I remember you talked about your hunt for one of these during the CT Drum show. Glad you finally got one......or two to make into one. Looks like a fun but frustrating project but I am sure everyone is learning a lot from what your going through. Good luck on the final build.

Michael

Hey Mike!

Yeah, I somewhat regretted not grabbing one I found there. It was super clean and even had the original heads still on it.

I did see it on the bay shortly thereafter but ended up going this route.

The first drum presented better than it was in the ad. Supposedly it was a player but one side was bent and the snares could not lay flat- it'd buzz like a beehive! Then rather than throw a bunch of parts at it the second one came up and I grabbed that. This second one is only slightly less nice than the one I found at the show (but that one was still better). It also had some mechanical issues but we are all good now as you probably know if you read all my drivel...

I think once this repaired/restored whatever one sells , my out of pocket will be well below that one from the show and be 90+% of that drum. And I would have done the same cleaning labor to that too, so that's a wash.

Then if I let my acrolite go, I might end up with this for free! But the acrolyte is pretty sweet....

Oh, and i need a new set of oem snares. I'll probably order those tomorrow.

Dug out a couple used heads that are quite nice... The "sale" drum will be ready to gig when I offer it!