I meant D.D.R.------Tromsa apparently exported very little:they left that up to the companies that they stencilled for-----certainly some have shown up elsewhere; it looks like they exported to the G.D.R. and may have had other business relationships there.During some period of Tromsa's production they had some identical wrap patterns to Trowa as well as to Sonor and Trixon. Tromsa even produced drums wrapped in the Croco that Trixon used. I have seen a Roxy snare(blue) here in North America and an unbadged Floor tom(red) in Germany in croco. One of the wraps that is common with Trowa is completely unique to the two companies.I don't know whether it is an East German made wrap or a West German made one. Of the drums that I have, 7 came from N.A. and were unbadged with Tromsa heads on them,5 from Germany unbadged, all of the others are badged Roxy with or without R.K.B. or Roxy heads and one is pencilled Voss inside, without a badge(I have seen a badged pair of white pearl Voss Bongos listed on ebay out of California----definitely Tromsa made). -----as for pix? certainly at some point as soon as i sort out camera woes. there are a lot of people waiting for pictures.

That's funny, Calfskin. Obviously a misunderstanding occured:

here in Germany 'DDR' means 'Deutsche Demokratische Republik'. Translate that into English, you have 'GDR' = German Democratic Republic.

But DDR = GDR (in England/USA) = Eastern Germany for us here! - And you mean D.D.R. = Western Germany?!

Strange ...!

Ralf

DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) = GDR (German Democratic Republic) = East Germany.

BRD (Bundes Republik Deutschland) = FRG (Federal Republic Germany) = West Germany.

1945 - 1989

Jon

sorry, my mistake. i was remembering product labels from the past that were confusing. i meant that Tromsa were mfg. in West Germany(Russelsheim) and that they appear to have rarely exported. Does anyone know the source of the wrap that both Tromsa and Trowa used around 1970? one that is clearly common to both was called " Mexico" by Tromsa---I do not know what Trowa called it but have seen it on a kit. Apparently all the wrap(possibly except some very basic oriental stuff) now comes from one company----Delmar. At one time Trixon got their wrap-- except for the Croco(i don't know who made this) ,from Deutsche Celluloid Werken in Speyer(defunct). It would seem that they might have been a broad supplier and supplied all drum companies in Germany but anything would have been possible ,I guess, in East Germany.At any rate, only Tromsa appears to have shared wrap designs with the East German Co but as previously mentioned ,they also at times shared designs with Sonor and Trixon.It is impossible to tell with such wraps as sparkles, glitters and pearls unless you had them in your hand but both Sonor and Tromsa used an odd one called Gold Pinstripe and Silver Pinstripe----it is unique and then of course the Trixon Croco wraps were usede by Tromsa as well but maybe after Trixon quit?

Hi,

According to Sonor (whom i sent some pictures and questions about the differ in the finish of my Swinger and the picture of the poly-pop finish in

the Swinger catalog), they never used "my" finish. I was surprised about their answer, because i could find nothing during the restauration that shouldn't have been on the set. The wrap seems a 100% original to me.

So i contacted Frits Steger (from the http://www.drummermagazin.de) about this poly-pop finish.

His explanation is the following.

This kind of wrap was originally made for top finish of kitchen sink units. This explanes maybe why it differs. Maybe the original wrap used by Sonor was temporarely out of order, so they put on a similar finish from the same manufacterer.

The fact that it was a "kitchen finish" explanes why other manufacterers like Trowa and takton (DDR.) used it also. It was free avaible.

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd200/akaqua/Sonor%20finish%20examples/DSC03340.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd200/akaqua/Sonor%20finish%20examples/DSC03343.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd200/akaqua/Trowabassdrummetpolypopfinish.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd200/akaqua/02.jpg.

Henk Claessen Netherlands