Funny thing, this all started as a "hey! what are you gonna do with that old bass drum in the corner?" comment to a friend of mine as he was showing me his latest score. My buddy John traded one of his three Gretsch RB Aqua Satin flame kits (yes he had three of them!) for a set of late 1930's Radio Kings, and asked me to come by and take a look at them. Pretty good shape for the year, some issues of non-original mounts and such, but he plans on using it as a players kit so he's not worried about that. As we're talking I spot out of the corner of my eye a very yellowed white pearl bass drum of rather large proportions. Turns out its a Leedy&Ludwig 14x26 that he bought at a pawn shop in Maine somewhere a few years ago. Well, everyone knows the answer to the question I asked, since I ended up with it, and have since restored it and posted it on the gallery here. This led to a Leedy&Ludwig marching snare that I scored off of ebay from as it turned out another forum member here (thanks Lee!) in which my original intent was to convert it into a rack tom for what was t be a Bonham kit. Well.....that plan changed as I found out the drum was quite rare the way it was, so I restored it as a snare, and posted it on the gallery. So my next plan was to make a 1920's traps kit with these two drums as a basis. Even bought some chinese tom toms from a forum member here (thanks Gary!) But now that idea has changed (see for sale section for the chinese toms and mount) as I have since scored from a local drum shop a 9x13 Leedy tom from 1948 in a very yellowed, cracked and faded white pearl, an 8x12 Leedy&Ludwig tom from ebay in an equally faded, yellowed and cracked black diamond pearl, and most recently a 16x16 floor tom off of ebay that had its original calf heads on it still! The 16x16 dates to 1949 and is finished in a black paint. Not sure if thats original or not, but all three of these toms are to be re-wrapped in Continental Pearl from Precision Drums to match the bass drum and snare. BTW, the bass drum is from 1951 and the snare from 1952. So we have 48,49,51,52 and 53! The floor tom needs the most work, including a reinforcement ring that needs to be reglued into place, and rust removal from the legs and mounts. So when I'm done I'll have a nice Leedy/Leedy&Ludwig Dancemaster kit just like in the catalogs! Now, if I can only score a Broadway snare for short money.......Hmmmm