Subject: Top Hat Story
This is a cool story and it all started here on this forum so this is where I decided to first post. This past summer I bought an original & unique top hat set from Steve Maxwell. The set was a post war set which is unusual and the drums were dated 1945 & 46. The sizes are also unusual - the set was a 26-13-14 with a 6 1/2 X 14 snare - all original & ordered this way evidently. These drums were housed in a music store in southern Illinois since the 1950's evidently when the original owner brought them in to sell. The drums have been on display in that music store for several years dating back to the 1950's and had garnered quite a reputation among those who were interested in vintage drums in the area.
http://vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=26507
Anyway to shorten up my long winded story - I bought them! That was back in July. Forward fast to January and I get out the top hat set and put it up to play on in my basement. Since it is cold out (it was back then!) I am absorbed spending time on the computer (like now) so I start combing the internet for web pages that mention Ludwig top hat and cane drum sets. One of the many links that I check out led me back to an old thread on the Vintage Drum Forum. About 2 years ago forum member Klinger had some top hat old drums up in the attic of his house that he wanted to get some information about and he put up a posting.
http://vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=11078&page=2
After many replies & comments when finally put up a couple pictures and lo & behold there are a pair of old Ludwig top hat drums a 16" floor tom & a 13" tom tom. Now my set with a 26" bass has this unique 14" floor tom (with 7 lugs too!) but this set really needs a 16" floor tom. So I decided to send a message to the poster to see if he still had those drums & if so, would he sell.
As it turned out he did still have the drums and he was willing to sell, but first he had to check with another person who was interested to buy the drums a while ago but had not yet come up with the money. In the end he got the go ahead to sell the drums to me and now I have a set of original top hat drums with a double floor tom set up!
:)
This is a gallery of pictures of the drums as they were dug out of Klinger's attic. He had obtained the drums from a DJ (friend?) at a radio station that was moving or going out of business or cleaning out back in the late 60's early 70's. The bass drum was donated some years before to an auction for a public tv station - this was in Wisconsin.
