Ludwig Pioneer Snare (1929)

Here's a Ludwig Pioneer solid mahogany shell drum I found when I was teenager. I must admit that if there were vintage drum police out there I'd be arrested. I tried to fix a cheap snare butt plate to the drum as well as varnish it with outdoor stain. It was only once I relocated to London, that I began to take an interest in vintage Ludwig snare drums and realised exactly what I was sitting with. This is a page out of the Ludwig brochure of 1929 (this drum on the bottom of the page):

Here's a before pic, note the horrible varnish job and tarnished Nickel Over Brass lug casings:

I then proceeded to sand down the shell and remove the Ludwig badge, as well as wax it up to a lovely finish:

I sourced an era-correct P-338 Strainer from Mike Curotto, a Ludwig vintage collector from the States:

Fixed the badge back to the shell using a special rivet tool purchased off eBay:

And finally after polishing up the hoops and sourcing some replacement repro lug clips, we have a very happy Ludwig Pioneer Snare owner!

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