Tromsa Piccolo Snare - Page 1 - Vintage Drum Forum

Ralf is correct. They are uniquely constructed and prone to cracking, very similar to Rogers lugs, with which they share some of the same materials.

They were designed for calfskin heads and when Tromsa began making plastic heads( brands R.K.B., later Tromsa, also Sonor and I think Rimmel too), they were a thickish single ply and sound quite nice. ......but those heads would invariably be replaced with Remo heads . Diplomats , aren't quite as good on them as the originals, leading to an excessively crisp sound. Mostly you find Ambassadors but sometimes even Emperors on them and often, the extra stress cracks one or more of the tips of the lugs and sometimes at the corners of the top too . Once one lug goes, there is an effort to compensate for the slippage and even more tension is applied to the other lugs. You sometimes see warped hoops too and pulled shells.

It's not a lot of work to repair them, unless there is a lot of damage. I've fixed dozens and dozens of them.

The lugs are two piece.The inner right angled metal plate is the mounting section. Your drum , likely, has two little laminated paper washers under that plate which act as insulators. Tromsa was probably the first company to isolate the lugs from the shell. The system is cheap, simple and works. Don't lose the washers, you can only replace them with a similar non-metallic o ring or hardened rubber washer, unless you don't care about their function.

The L shaped mounting plate sits inside a stamped chrome on brass outer shroud, which carries the receiver nut. This exterior is crimped over the mounting plate and pulls against it on tensioning and the tip takes most of the stress.

If there are cracks:

Remove the two flat head screws retaining the lug. Save the screws, washers and the little paper isolation washers. Remove the foam nut plug and shake out the receiver nut. The foam plug has likely turned to powder ----your drum is 50 years old and you need to replace it with felt or a little piece of foam, styrofoam or whatever. Wash the lugs with detergent and a toothbrush on the inside and rinse dry thoroughly. Sometimes I rinse them with rubbing alcohol too, in order to present a clean metal surface.

If the inside plate is secure in the lug, good, if not, screw one of the screws into the mounting plate and pull the plate as tight as possible towards what would be the inside of the lug when mounted. It needs to be as tight there as possible and may need to be held there during repair.

You are going to solder the inside of the crack and also solder the two sections of the lug together, at the tip. I use silver solder because it has a high tensile strength but tin/lead needs less heat and it probably does the job. I've used that too and I don't see any problems.

You will need a 100 watt soldering iron, like the kind that is used for sheet metal, with a large bevel or pyramid shaped tip. The Weller type 100 watt electronic soldering guns will not do. I had an old one but set it aside somewhere and temporarily lost it. I needed to fix some lugs, so I bought one on ebay from the Dominican Republic for 13.00 and free shipping. It is made in China and identical to the many being sold out of China but was cheaper than the same one shipped from China.

You will need a can of paste soldering flux and a roll of 1/8" fluxless, solder ( best is silver or the highest tin percentage).

The lug can be loosely clamped in a vice or even vice grips with some padding made from an old leather strap or shoe, to protect the chrome . A folded over oven mitt works too, or other non-synthetic cloth. The lug doesn't get that hot but too hot to touch for a short while

LIberally coat the inside of the tip and about 1/2 " of the inside plate with paste flux and put the heated iron on the plate , as close to the tip as you can get it----preferably touching the brass shroud too. When the flux starts to evaporate a little( don't breath it in---wearing a mask is probably o.k.) dip the tip of the solder solder in the flux and apply the solder on the plate at the junction of the crack. The solder should shortly melt into the area, giving good adhesion to the surface of the mounting plate, usually first. It will take a little more heat and solder( possibly a little more fux too) for it to gain purchase and a bond with the inside surface of the shroud tip as well. If the solder just balls up like a bubble, you haven't got enough heat yet and also add more flux. The flux helps with heat dispersion and solder dispersion. For cracks up in the corners( not as common) you are just laying in a little blob , straight into the inner curve of the corner, onto the brass. For this , I orient the lug so the crack is situated at the bottom, level, with either side of the crack rising equally. Liberally apply paste and cut off a piece of solder , the length of the crack . Lay that piece of solder wire into the blob of paste. The heat is applied mostly towards the inner edge of the lug. The solder will melt and lay like a bubble at first but with sufficient heat , it will flow and bond pretty evenly, laying a bridge across the crack. You at this point may want to add a little more to build it up. You can but be carefull because too much will interfere with the fit of the nut.

I have repaired many Rogers lugs like this too because almost all of them are stamped brass as well and subject to the same kind of cracking. Often Rogers have cracks in all 4 corners.

If done well, the solder will actually fill larger cracks and there is no evidence of a repair. The heat generated in no way affects the chrome. There is occasionally some staining on the chrome from the burnt flux but this is easily removed with a little elbow grease.