Hi,

Here’s one from a while back that I never did an article on. You can see this drum on pages 4-5 of my book VINTAGE SNARE DRUMS THE CUROTTO COLLECTION.

1920s-30s LUDWIG & LUDWIG 10 LUG 5 x 14 WMP/ENGRAVED/GOLD PLATED STANDARD MODEL

FROM MY BOOK:

“This drum is unique in that the White Marine Pearl (pyralin) has been expertly engraved, filled in with some type of ink or dye and embellished with blue and gold rhinestones. Engraving was typically restricted to brass shell snare drums of this era but gold plating was a catalogued option. This is most likely a one-off, uncatalogued special order drum. William F. Ludwig II has stated ‘They were always sending drums back to us to have modifications done.’ This drum was found just north of San Francisco in a Marin County church.”

MORE BACK STORY:

I had seen this drum in the “Mystery Drum” column in a mid-1990s issue of Not So Modern Drummer. I was immediately fascinated with this drum and filed it to my “hit list” of wanted drums. The story goes that legendary drum dealer Liam Mulholland had found the drum in a church in Marin County. That’s the last I heard of this drum for many years. Fast forward 10 or so years and I find myself in the middle of another drum deal with Liam. During our dealing I asked Liam whatever happened to that WMP/engraved/gold plated Standard model. He told me that he sold it to a man named Nick Ormrod, a percussionist from the UK. Later that day I called John Aldridge (founder and owner of NSMD at that time) and asked if he knew who Nick Ormrod was and to my amazement John said “sure, he is an NSMD subscriber.” John gave me Nick’s contact info and I immediately contacted Nick. He said he still had the drum and only used it once for as special occasion. I asked him if it was for sale and he said “sure, I’ll sell it to you.” We did the deal and there you go…scratch another drum off he hit list.

Enjoy!

Mike Curotto