1. Nice score! *grumbles*

2. Whether you put bottom heads on them or not is your call. There are some who believe that concert toms will come back, or you shouldn't mess with their originality, or what have you. I think you should play them and see what you think. Then, play a Ludwig kit with double-headed toms, and see how they compare. If you decide you want double-headed toms, is selling/trading them an option? (I realize there are relational politics involved...would your mom's boyfriend understand?)

3. Geez! Nice score!

4. Standard heads will work great.

5. Holy crap, that's a sweet score!

A truck load? Can we see some pics? Are they complete drums? What shape are they in? Interesting score, how did he find a truck load of drums? Are they all gold sparkle? This is a great story, I cant wait to see what you do with them. Your lucky, Any for sale?

JC

Do the marching toms have tom rack mounts ??

They all have the original quad mounts...more like a slip in thing on the toms and the harness had 4 adjustable spades that I would try to use if I can figure out a way to. I don't really want to put more un-needed holes in these if I can avoid it. There was a reinforcement piece between the toms that helped hold them together...so there is already one hole.

I think the rack tom would have to be cymbal stand mounted since I really don't want to poke holes in the kick, and I am leary about using a snare stand with no bottom head should I go that route.

I say truck load...here is the lot. Two incomplete quad sets with all the original hardware...7 or 8 toms if I recall correctly, one 26" BD dated 1959, two incomplete marching snares, mainly missing heads and one is missing the snares. I purchased the 28" myself last year for $20. They are all gold sparkle and all in extremely good structural shape, and all sitting on my shelf in the basement waiting for me to do something with em. All the wraps match except the 1959 26" drum...which is a slightly different color. I am going to hold that one back for a different project one day. The wraps are showing some age, but nothing that I would have to repair. The 28" does need some glue on a few of the seams but nothing I can't do easily. Honestly...I was blown away when he pulled up with em. He said he can locate more if I want, but no more gold sparkle drums...they are a different color (not sure of brand either). Depending on how these go I may have him grab those as well.

caddywumpus, personally I am not against trading anything but I feel it would be a slap in my Mom's boyfriends face if I did that. I never really asked him about that though. I am not sure how he would feel about that. Tell ya what...I will start messing with these a little and see how they go. If I can work with a few of em I will, if not I will have that talk with him. If he is ok with me trading for some stuff I will for sure use, I will let you know.

Pictures?!?!? Ah...that means I gotta remember to take em. I will try to snap a few this weekend.

Congrats! sounds like a winner.Please buy your moms boyfriend a beer!

Just A beer? It would be so lonely though!

I have taken them both out to dinner a few times, left a few 6-packs of appreciation in his fridge. He really is more interested in seeing what I can do with em...and moreso than that he wants to see me use em on stage.

Those shells are the same as all the rest of the Ludwig kit drums. You don't need special marching heads or anything. But I have always found that vintage Ludwig drums do like Ludwig brand drum heads as far as fit and sound to my ear, but this of course is debatable and others will disagree. Should be fine with plain 'ol Remo coated Ambassadors or Emporers.

To continue my story...about 3 weeks after I purchased the 28" drum I noticed a problem. No spurs. I searched on CL for a while and found a fella selling a complete (in pieces) low end kit with extras. I had 3 other kits that needed some parts that I wanted to give away to friends and whatnot so I bought the CL find for $30. It came with several brand new extra hoops, enough good aftermarket hardware to outfit a whole other kit, a few heads that were so so, and most important...kick drum spurs. They aren't vintage, they aren't Ludwig, but on my nickle and dime budget I will take what I can get. I ended up giving away those other three kits. The actual shells I got from the CL find had the wraps removed, hardware removed and bagged, and they were stained. Basically they look like crap. Sooo...I am going to smooth the shells and clean the hardware. I am going to have my friend paint them up with some nice graffiti over an off white base, and put em together. I may end up giving those away as well...I'm not sure yet. There is always more story behind these drums...I'm sure more will squeeze it's way out sooner or later.

I wasn't so much worried about brands...more worried if there was a particular type (standard, marching) head that I needed to use, and in particular with the marching snare.

The 28" kick heads are dead. They have huge dings and dents from being stored with stuff on top. I tried to tune it but no dice...it sounds HUGE but flabby and flat. The bearing edge looked good if I recall correctly though. All the marching toms have great edges.

This is all great news to me! I am going to try to find at least a decent 28" batter head for now to use till I can afford a new one. I want to tinker a little and find what will give me a good sound out of that beast. I have some good usable tom heads I can mess with for the rest. I am going to start working with it tomorrow maybe after I move all my other gear back into the basement and make some room. I've always wanted a gold sparkle Ludwig kit...a huge one. One of almost cartoonish proportion. The Crossroad Kings are taking a turn into some more 60's hevy blues inspired rock and roll...this kit should fit right in with those sets!

So I ran into my first problem. I started to put the marching snare together and ran out of hoops! I have one bottom, no top. I guess I got two incomplete snares. I tried to fit one of my other snare hoops on but the marching snare uses more t-rods than my standard 8-lug snares. Also missing most of the t-rods. Both throwoffs were missing pieces so between the two I have one good one and one for some extra parts. I was also able to salvage a full set of the snare wires...which are more like a nylon~ish strand than the springs I am used to seeing. Kinda neat how they adjust though.

Other than those two, I started to take inventory. Sorry, no pics yet though. My wife and I are refinishing a table, and the tent is set up to air out before my camping trip so I couldn't get much of a good shot if I tried. Only one full set of marching quads. All the hoops are present, some hardware missing, some lugs MIA...but I should be able to salvage enough to do what I want to do and have plenty left over for future projects.