Great Question. Those lugs are all works of art. Perhaps an artist?

sa

I suppose it was the style at the time, much like nowadays where everything looks like crap. Back then things looked tasteful.

As far as I know, WFL senior came up with the designs. He had an engineer named cecil strupe that prob put his ideas to life but I think most of the designs came from seniors head. The classic lug was invented in 1947.

A couple of guys named George Way and Joe Thompson designed a lot of beautiful drum parts.

I wonder if thats because many drummers(not us vintage lovers) these days are convinced that gear with beautiful sculptured lines that are sleek, such as lugs and hardware will break. It seems many don't trust old designs and require designs that look like military weaponry. So the drum companies make it that way.

For instance, personally I love my Ludwig consul rails. They work perfectly for me every time, but the new consul rails look massive, chunky and quite un sexy, but ooze security.

Just a thought.

There was no patent filed for the bread and butter lug even though that was Joe Thompson as well:

The Leedy, Camco (nee George Way), and Ludwig Imperial lugs were all supposedly designed by George Way. The Slingerland lugs were said to have been designed by HH Slingerland himself. As far as the Gretsch designs, I'm sure Fred Gretsch Sr had something to do with them. You've got to remember that these were small companies at the time, even Ludwig. At the time that all of these great classic lugs styling was developed, Leedy was the biggest drum manufacturer of the time, soon to be taken over by CG Conn........all the rest were small companies and WFL was the smallest of all at the time. Amazing what a few years did for the drum industry in the middle of the last century, huh? :)

Awesome discussion.

That George Way, he was the man. Unbelievable how much impact he had on the industry.

It's incredible to think about these workers just going about their day creating a design appreciated for generations. I often think about the blue-collar Chicago and NYC guys who put together the drums I whack on all these years later. So many anonymous craftsmen who represented a high-point in American manufacturing.