Project Ludwig Snare Drum #2: 1970 Ludwig Super Sensensitive

 

I read an ad on Craigslist for a vintage Ludwig drum kit that need some work.  The photos posted were small and blurry, so it was a pretty tough to see what was actually being offered.  Even though the images were poor, I could tell there was a chrome snare drum, and it looked to be a Ludwig Supraphonic.  I’ve always wanted one of these drums, and I figured maybe I could get the whole kit pretty cheaply.  I went to the seller’s apartment after work to have a look, and decided the whole kit was not really something I wanted (it was mismatched and the insides of the shells had been painted black).  But the snare turned out to be a 1970 (date stamp visible inside) Ludwig Super Sensitive in decent shape.

The Supraphonicand the Super Sensitive are basically the same drum, but with different snare mechanisms.  The Supraphonicuses a simple single pull throw-off with a passive butt-end on the other side.  The Super Sensitive uses a much more complicated parallel mechanism that pulls the strainer evenly from both sides.  There is a connecting rod that travels through the drum so that one lever can operate bother strainers in unison.  With this design, the snare wires (or strainer) are actually longer than the 14-inch drum head allowing only snare wires to contact the resonant head.  The longer snares, even pull from both sides and super-fine adjustment are designed to make the snares more sensitive, thus the name.  The downside is that the mechanism is a bit finicky and because of its large size protruding out from the sides of the drum, it is susceptible to damage.

Although I was after a Supraphonic, the Super Sensitive is actually a bonus in my book.  My brother had one of these snares (a 6.5-inch with brass shell that had originally been a Black Beauty) and I always thought it was interesting, and sounded great.  Mine is 5-inch, which should be a little snappier at the expense of some volume, but that is fine with me.  I may still get a Supraphonic someday, if the right deal presents itself.

The seller said the snare needed work because it didn’t sound very good.  First thing I noticed was he had the snare wires on the outside of the openings on the lower hoop.  Keep in mind that the openings are there for the snare wires to pass through, and this is very basic info, so I knew I was not dealing with an aficionado.  I offered him $125 and I had my snare drum in the back seat of my car minutes later.

Here is how it looked when I got it home:

Not too bad really.  Dirty and out of adjustment in every possible way, but most everything was there.  The guards that protect the Super Sensitive parallel snare mechanism were missing, and several snare wires had snapped (probably from having to go over the lower hoop instead of through it).  And one of the tension bolts on the snare mechanism is a bit bent, which is potentially the worst issue.

Once the weekend arrived and I had some spare time, I disassembled the drum and closely inspected all of the parts.  It is pretty common to get some kind of unforeseen surprise such as some part or parts being non-original or damaged.  Not the case here; my quick first inspection at the seller’s apartment had been pretty accurate.

There were a few parts I needed which I ordered online.  The great thing about these drums is new replacement parts are readily available.  I ordered the missing snare guards, and also a new strainer.  I opted for the PureSound wires designed specifically for the Super Sensitive instead of the Ludwig strainer, mainly because I have been really happy with PureSound wires on my other snares.  I’m sure the Ludwig wires are just fine, but I’m on a roll with PureSound.

Once the drum was apart, I cleaned, polished and lubricated all of the parts.  The shell is made of Ludalloy, which is some Ludwig version of Aluminum.  These shells sound great, but are plagued by chrome flaking off which has something to do with a reaction between the aluminum and chrome.  It doesn’t affect the sound, but it does diminish the appearance.  Luckily, my drum isn’t suffering from flaking as much as many drums I have seen.  Once polished, it is not even too noticeable unless you are really looking for it.  The hoops have some rush that wouldn’t polish out.  I decided to stick with them though, just to keep the drum original.  The only issue I’m concern about is the bent bolt on one of the throw-offs.  It’s press-fit, so I can remove it to replace it, and I can’t really torque on it too much because of the way it is installed in the mechanism.  I’m hoping I can make adjustments with the throw-off so that it won’t be an issue once in tuning.

Next I reassembled the drum and installed new heads going with my standard set-up:  REMO Ambassador Hazy on the snare side and a REMO Powerstroke3 (coated with dot) on the batter side.  Seating and tuning the heads was quick and easy, which means the drum is in-round and the bearing edges are good.

Take a look at the finished product:

After installing the new PureSound strainer, I fiddled with the throw-off for quite a little while.  This snare has so many adjustments, that it can really try you patience, especially in comparison to the simple and bullet-proof Supraphonic.  But it wasn’t really that tough; but new to me which meant I was learning as I went.  I had the same experience with a Rogers Dyna-Sonic, which is also uber-adjustable, but in both cases, the end result was well worth it.  The drum is really super-sensitive and offers a variety of tones and sounds.  You can crank it and get a really tight crack that still articulates well in terms of ghost notes and accents.  Or you can loosen it up a bit and get closer to the classic John Bonham sound.  I’m going with something a bit in the middle for now.

I’m excited to try this drum out with my band and see how it stands up in live performance.  We also have some studio time coming up in a few weeks, so it might even get some recording time.  In the end, I think Ludwig really cracked the code in terms of creating great-sounding snare drums.

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