Hi,

Here are three Lang/NSMD Gladstone engraved gold Triumphal prototypes (#s 1, 2, 3) from 2004-2005. I purchased these from John Aldridge who was the engraver of these snare drums. John’s company at the time, NSMD Co., also supplied the shells for these drums. As always, John’s engraving is stellar, the drums look great and sound great, the gold plating is top notch but they are a little rough around the edges as they are prototypes. As the original Lang/NSMD ad shows, there were 30 drums scheduled to be manufactured: “10 each in 4”, 5” and 6.5” x 14”.”. An update to this (as of 3-1-23) comes right from John Aldridge: “I did one more set for Arnie, then a single 5 x 14 for him. So with yours that’s seven total.” So only seven of these were made, the 3 prototypes, one production set of 3 and a single 5 x 14. I also asked John if he knew why the other 28 sets of 3 were never made. John told me there were a number of factors that got in the way of manufacturing and selling these snare drums. One of those factors was “…plus the price of gold plating spiked up too high to even break even.” So after speaking with John I understood that all of the planets had to be aligned for this project to work, it just didn’t happen.

These drums are featured on pages 172-177 of my book: VINTAGE SNARE DRUMS THE CUROTTO COLLECTION

Enjoy!

Mike Curotto