As they are older the timpani is not quite as developed by today’s standards, 50’s onward , but if pedal is in working order and heads are good , on good day 1500 , on lame day 500....

Don't see them very often, but I have seen them for sale in antique stores and such. Sometimes needing heads, they sit forever at prices around $79. Haven't seen one move, even at that price. I thought they might scrap for more, considering the metal content.

Too bad I am on the other side of the Atlantic, I would love those in the studio. Beautiful!

I bought a pair of 1930's Ludwig timps in perfect working order for $200. Used modern timpani are in much higher demand and command bigger prices. These older (pre-1960) timps are more common than you'd think. You can still find them being used in the lots of schools and universities.

Mike

I love old copper tympani drums, and tune-able drums in general.

I have a 25.5 inch 50's Gretsch that was resurrected from the scrap heap. It gets played almost everyday at my place. In fact, I have two drums in my kit that I can change the pitch of on-the-fly, the other is another old school orchestra instrument, a 60's/70's Sonor timp-tom (13 in) that I retrofitted to a heavy duty modern folding base, you adjust the pitch by spinning it like a steering wheel. The Gretsch has had dents pounded out with a ballpeen hammer by a man named Fritz, and one tuner replaced with a head-cover bolt from a 50's Chevy V8 (according to Fritz.) By Rik's prices I paid way too much for it. I don't care...I love that thing, my kids and their friends love to bang on it. It fills the basement with sound, and it is a great way to distract them from climbing behind one of my, please don't touch, drum sets that are also in the basement. I just hand them some big soft mallets...tell them they can't hurt it, they can't resist.