<<<...What makes "the" vintage sound?...>>>

Lousy or no bearing edges, lousy or no snare beds, gut/wire/silkwound snare wires, out-of-round shells, stick-chopper rims, flimsy/badly designed strainers etc...but these do add to the authenticity of the snare drum.

Mike Curotto

Aside from what Mike said ( all very true and valid points ) for me alot of the sound is the wood.That aged wood thats been through god knows what.Especially with stencil drums...I've had insides look like something crawled from the muck...and those drums give me the best sound.I love modern drums...but the technology of today gets in the way for me alot of times.Rim mounts are a great example...everyone boasts about them.And while they do improve about " " that much sound any drum without one sounds just as amazing.

Hi, Mike. Thanks for the reply and I tend to agree with you....but I have some vintage gear that's actually in better shape than new as far as straightness and good bearing edges, etc.

Speaking strictly of snare drums, I can see that calfskin heads and silk wound wires would definitely have a big effect on the sound, but why do the toms and bass drums also sound different?

The wood? Yes! I think so, too! And I also think the way in which the wood was bent into a cylinder has a bearing on the sound as well. New methods are different and seem to produce much denser shells. I happen to have a fairly modern kit that was made to mimick an old Ludwig kit as much as possible. It uses the Keller vintage mahogany/poplar shells. I also have the original vintage Ludwig kit that the new kit was modeled after and there are marked differences in the sound between the two. For one thing, the original has a rounder bearing edge and a smaller tuning range. The original shells are really noticeably lighter, too. Both kits sound great...but man are they different!

hi everyone,

it's a privlage to be here.

back in the vintage days, the materials used where pure. the wood that was used was from a foreast that was not man-aged. look at it this way, if you plant a garden, and all you do is keep harvesting the plants, eventually the soil will not have in it everything the plants need to grow to their fullest.

the same thing is happening to our wood/trees. we are clear cutting the forests. that means all the little bugs and other micro nutrients are no available to the next generation of trees. it is minute, however it does make the wood have a quality that is not what it could be, or was. it is missing all the little things in the ecosystem that allow it be a tight molecular structure. todays wood is looser, it lacks the micro elements it used to have naturally. the same goes for the steel and other metals used. everything is stretched out to make it go further. in essence, it is diluted. for furniture, or toilet paper, it is not noticable, however when it comes to lumber for instruments, all those micro things add up.

it boils down to that. wood that has all the stuff in the soil it needs to the best it can be. the metal is made as cheap as it can be today. even though the technology is better today to make the materials, we have found ways to make a pound of metal go further than it used to.

all these little tiny details add up to a modern product that is simply not up to par with what it was once upon a time.

find some old growth lumber, and some old steel from the 50's, use that and make a drum with it. you will get "the" vintage sound.

use materials from today, and you just get a product that is missing elements, which are necessary for a instrument that gives you as much as it can. we are just taking to much and not leaving enough in return to keep the forest in balance.

when we clear cut, we remove all the little bugs poop, and the bigger animals that eat those bugs are not there to give their poop either. it just adds up to diluted materials.

sorry folks, but we are just not that good at man-aging forests.

all that effects the way the final instrument feels and sounds.

so yes it is the wood, and now you know why.

the wood as everyone else has said. aged wood sounds different (and better in my opinion)

Good point dpdrums. I have to say that is a valid way of looking at it and

the scrap metal from old ships is highly prized and worthy of taking giant ships down piece by piece because the metal was so much better back then.

In regards to wood, find an old chunk of wood and any wood craftsman would prefer it over new growth. The old wood gets stripped out of houses and buildings for its value and properties.

In a way we have refined everything we eat, drink and build with to its quickest form, thus reducing many of its intended benefits.

So with that said your points are great and thanks for the contribution to the topic.

David

Yes! Thanks, everyone! Great responses!