Love the old '30s era stuff.
Wouldn't want to have to gig it, but it's fascinating to look back and see how far we've come.
In another post, you'd mentioned the Camco Deluxe / Gretsch Floating Action pedal as being a W&A product. It wasn't. You were right when you thought it was maybe a Martin Fleetfoot.
The Fleetfoot design came from Martin Mfg. Co. of Minneapolis, Minnesota back in the 1930s. Originally, it was a longboard (no split heel plate.) By the time Camco acquired the rights to manufacture it as their own in the early 1950s, it was already popular as the split footboard model that Camco put their name and Gretsch's name on. Rogers sold the Camco Deluxe in 1960, but then dropped it once their Swiv-O-Matic pedal took off.
W&A didn't make Gretsch's tension lug casings or die-cast hoops, either. Those were farmed out to Advantage Castings Co, in NYC - who still makes lugs and hoops for Gretsch.
The pyralin wrap process is such a cool thing! Especially for the satin flame wraps - the slicer used for them has a serated comb-like blade to help create the prismatic effect - which is also why those wraps are so damned hard to keep clean. Gotta use a soft brush to dust 'em off.
The champagne sparkle was the most costly to produce, because they put sand, crushed glass, and flakes of copper in that soup's mix. Eventually, five-sided flecks of foil confetti replaced the crushed glass originally used to create the sparkle colors. I believe the newer Glitter Glass wraps today have gone back to using crished glass, which may account for why it's so brittle to work with.
I read that George Way was the one who introduced the use of pyralin wrap for drum shells back in the 1920s with Leedy.
Cool thread, MastroSnare ! And nice pix !
