Thanks Klinger - I'm not sure about that extra logo, but it may be his name.Help2

[COLOR="Red"]Edit: I missed wflkurt's explanation of the logo tag and I trust what he says so it is not a personal name logo as I suspected . Thanks wflkurt! [/COLOR]

His snare was an early 20s Ludwig metal shell (He mentions in the 1946 video that he got it in 1923 and I think that may be accurate. He probably painted it white to match when he got the WMP bass drum.

That floor tom is also a wfl with zephyr lugs. The lugs are just seperate tension. I just sold a wfl set that had a floor tom identical to that one in the pic.

Here is a pic of the set I sold. The floor tom is exactly like the Baby Dodds floor tom.

Wflkurt – Thank you for your identification of the floor tom and the lugs! What year was that matched set you sold? It was interesting that WFL staggered the lugs like a marching drum on the small toms.

I’m wondering if Dodds’ floor tom and other toms are from different years? Any idea of the date of his floor tom, and the date of his other two toms. Could it be that they were originally sold in a factory production set? Or would all three have been matching double tension single lug style?

Could this be the account of how Baby Dodds got his WMP bass drum (maybe the three WFL toms also)? The quote below is from the book The Baby Dodds Story as told to Larry Gara, pages 63-64. The notes in parenthesis I added for clarity.

Ben Pollack used to come to the Lincoln Gardens and years later I got his drums through Ray Bauduc (1939 WFL endorsee). I knew Ray from the old days in New Orleans but he used to come to watch and listen when we were playing at the Three Deuces. I think Pollack owed Ray some money, and he gave him the drums in part payment. Bauduc liked my drumming and he used to ask me how to do various things. When Pollack gave him the drums, Ray gave them to me and those were the drums which were saved when the Three Deuces burned (It burned in 1940 and they rescued Dodds’ drums, although he mentioned they had gotten very wet).

There are a couple of photos out there that show Dodds playing with Jimmie Noone and Roy Eldridge that are claimed to be from 1940. In those photos you can see the WMP tubelug bass drum with the front hoop that has a wider inlay than the batter side hoop that has a thinner inlay. This white BD is seen in many later photos. At the time of those photos Dodds is still using a China Tom. Later he would add three WFL WMP toms (It's possible that those toms were included in the set Dodds got from WFL endorsee Bauduc also).

There is more info about those WFL toms on this forum.

ok folks...so im throwing in my 2 cents ;-) if Krupa was endorsing sligers in the 30's and had extra william f's that he couldnt play,cuz o' his endorsments,then yes,why not give the ol' master a set of nice pearly whites to second line on!!! i guess we will never REALLY know ;-) Hmmmm Help2 Group Hug YAY!!!! CHIEF-OUT!!!!

Here is a little more about Baby Dodds’ drum set as written by Fredrick Ramsey Jr. for the Folkways record issued in 1951. The recording of those tracks was, as many know from 1946. The album was the “Talking and Drum Solos” album.

The 1951 liner notes by Ramsey list these drum components and was likely a list that was made at the time the tracks were recorded, because the story that Dodds told about getting the Ben Pollack bass drum from Ray Bauduc wasn’t yet confirmed by the Larry Gara book that came from interviews with Dodds in 1953. Ramsey mentions in the liners that he got this list the day of the recording session.

Here is the list as quoted from those liner notes. The photos from that recording session show what appears to be the same set that is in 1946 video, so you can hear and see it in action:

“One bass drum, originally used by Ben Pollack and presented to Baby in 1938 by Ray Bauduc.

All equipment Ludwig or William F. Ludwig, unless otherwise noted.”

This list seems to be accurate about the things that we have already discussed on this forum except for the 1923 snare which I made the correction in the parenthesis in the list above. I feel this confirms that the WMP bass drum was a Ludwig that came from Ray Bauduc and that Dodds did purchase the three WFL toms separately in 1945 (from Franks Drum Shop in Chicago as seen on those stickers on the toms), and weren’t with the drums he got from Bauduc in 1938. It is nice to see the size sticks Dodds was using at that session mentioned too. Angora goatskin heads on his snare is something to consider also. They might not have been all calfskin back then.

:)