Thanks to a DW member, my youth is recaptured

alparrott

alparrott

Diamond Member
Big shoutout to @OuttaTime for giving me the heads-up on a really sweet bargain yesterday! In doing so, he helped me scratch a twenty-five year old itch.

I don't remember exactly, but about 25 years ago I traded in basically all the drums I owned at the time and put the money towards my Yamaha Stage Customs. In among all the starter kit shells was the first snare drum I ever owned, a Ludwig Pioneer dating back to the mid-60s in blue duco finish. It had lived rough but it was a monster snare drum and I've regretted selling it ever since. I've always had it in my mind to get a replacement for it, but there's always been other priorities.

A couple of weeks ago Nick Costa reviewed a Pioneer on his YouTube channel, and that reminded me of my old Pioneer that I'd let go. I told my wife I intended to buy one this year, and she said, "well, start looking." Blue duco Pioneers in acceptable shape are no longer as cheap as they once were and there's several examples on eBay going for $900-$1000. So I put a wanted-to-buy note here on the DW forum's classified page, and yesterday Outtatime messaged me saying he'd found a really nice deal on a blue duco Pioneer at a Guitar Center in California. The quality was acceptable and the finish was generally in good shape, but the price was fantastic!

Suffice it to say, it's on the way, and I'm once again grateful to the community here on Drummerworld.

EDIT: Shipped! it arrives on Thursday.

newpioneer.png
 
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alparrott said:
Big shoutout to @OuttaTime for giving me the heads-up on a really sweet bargain yesterday! In doing so, he helped me scratch a twenty-five year old itch.

I don't remember exactly, but about 25 years ago I traded in basically all the drums I owned at the time and put the money towards my Yamaha Stage Customs. In among all the starter kit shells was the first snare drum I ever owned, a Ludwig Pioneer dating back to the mid-60s in blue duco finish. It had lived rough but it was a monster snare drum and I've regretted selling it ever since. I've always had it in my mind to get a replacement for it, but there's always been other priorities.

A couple of weeks ago Nick Costa reviewed a Pioneer on his YouTube channel, and that reminded me of my old Pioneer that I'd let go. I told my wife I intended to buy one this year, and she said, "well, start looking." Blue duco Pioneers in acceptable shape are no longer as cheap as they once were and there's several examples on eBay going for $900-$1000. So I put a wanted-to-buy note here on the DW forum's classified page, and yesterday Outtatime messaged me saying he'd found a really nice deal on a blue duco Pioneer at a Guitar Center in California. The quality was acceptable and the finish was generally in good shape, but the price was fantastic!

Suffice it to say, it's on the way, and I'm once again grateful to the community here on Drummerworld.

EDIT: Shipped! it arrives on Thursday.

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Nice!
 
And it's here! My amazing wife dropped it off at my office so I could unbox it over lunchtime, in case I needed to stop off for new heads or anything on the way home.

It's clearly showing its age - there's craquelure and chips in the finish, it looks as if it was disassembled at some point and some of the finish may have come off stuck to the lugs. I was elated to see that there's no rust anywhere, the muffler and strainer are in perfect working order, and even the heads are newer (and not badly tuned). The one downside is that the (apparently original) snares have a couple of bent-up strands. I don't want to clip them, so I will just replace them - I have a set from my Tama snare at home or I might stop off and grab a set of snares at the shop later on. But I'm super happy! Thanks yet again @OuttaTime!
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alparrott said:
And it's here! My amazing wife dropped it off at my office so I could unbox it over lunchtime, in case I needed to stop off for new heads or anything on the way home.

It's clearly showing its age - there's craquelure and chips in the finish, it looks as if it was disassembled at some point and some of the finish may have come off stuck to the lugs. I was elated to see that there's no rust anywhere, the muffler and strainer are in perfect working order, and even the heads are newer (and not badly tuned). The one downside is that the (apparently original) snares have a couple of bent-up strands. I don't want to clip them, so I will just replace them - I have a set from my Tama snare at home or I might stop off and grab a set of snares at the shop later on. But I'm super happy! Thanks yet again @OuttaTime!
View attachment 145038View attachment 145039View attachment 145040
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6 lugs with that thick shell and rerings, I bet that snare is fat! Nice score
 
roncadillac said:
6 lugs with that thick shell and rerings, I bet that snare is fat! Nice score
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We're gonna find out this weekend, it's going to a rehearsal tomorrow and a worship service on Sunday morning!
 
usually an ink date stamp inside and original brass hoops
my black gold February 1961 Pioneer I keep has both

oh here's a pic ; That snare sounds "Pro" like every classic record ever- every time I've used it
white interior

gretschAug2twentyone 007.JPG
 
So I had this drum out at a rehearsal which requires a light touch and therefore a sensitive drum. And that's when I noticed that at some point someone had put in tension rods on this drum with extremely long unthreaded shanks. This effectively halved the drum's tuning range on both heads, as you can only tension the head so much until the threads bottom out. It could only achieve medium tension on both heads, which left it sounding mushy and barky. (With my loud cover band, I had it tuned a bit lower and therefore never noticed this issue.)

It was simplicity itself to go home and trade out all the tension rods, turning this into an absolute smoking incredible drum with amazing range. I wonder if this drum got let go for so cheap because "i CaN't TuNe iT To sOuNd GoOd"? A five dollar fix at worst!
 
alparrott said:
So I had this drum out at a rehearsal which requires a light touch and therefore a sensitive drum. And that's when I noticed that at some point someone had put in tension rods on this drum with extremely long unthreaded shanks. This effectively halved the drum's tuning range on both heads, as you can only tension the head so much until the threads bottom out. It could only achieve medium tension on both heads, which left it sounding mushy and barky. (With my loud cover band, I had it tuned a bit lower and therefore never noticed this issue.)

It was simplicity itself to go home and trade out all the tension rods, turning this into an absolute smoking incredible drum with amazing range. I wonder if this drum got let go for so cheap because "i CaN't TuNe iT To sOuNd GoOd"? A five dollar fix at worst!
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Well I guess this episode only gets better with time …… what led me to your treasure eventually led me to mine ……….karma. Ha I think not ……right? Can’t be……maybe……can’t make this stuff upE6355B6C-5071-4857-9423-95F1286AFA5C.jpeg
 
OuttaTime said:
Well I guess this episode only gets better with time …… what led me to your treasure eventually led me to mine ……….karma. Ha I think not ……right? Can’t be……maybe……can’t make this stuff upView attachment 146494
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Brilliant! Don't forget to trade out your tension rods if you want to crank it to heaven ;)
 
jda said:
3P w/ rings/ the drum is light as two feathers/ lovely/ etc
especially light if it has it's original brass hoops which are on a Ludwig of that era spectacular
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Not sure if mine has COB hoops, I suspect not - but it IS the lightest snare I own by a long shot at this point.
tris66 said:
When is the last time you bought tension rods? lol
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Fortunately I had a bunch saved over from the last time I did!
tris66 said:
Congrats on the new old drum. Those sound amazing. I wondered what the fuss was about until I hit one. OMG moment. Three thin plys of heaven.
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I love 3-ply Ludwig drums. This snare pairs so beautifully with my 3-ply Standards. I will be playing them together on a chamber-music style gig on Friday, and then I plan on using them together as a period-accurate kit for a 70s-themed high school reunion in September. Not sure how much I'll gig this drum - it was hard enough finding one in this good a condition, I wouldn't want anything to happen to it. It's the first time I've ever been worried about taking any drum anywhere!
 
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