Archive for February, 2011

First German drumkit museum

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

It was last year in November when I exhibted a red SDSV at the edge of a huge drummer meeting in Karlsruhe/Germany. I met a lot of vintage geeks such as Marcel Vogelmann, Ludwig supporter, living encyclopedia and owner of “Herr Vogelmann’s Wunderbarer Trommelladen” (which means “Mr. Vogelmann’s wunderful drum store”) in LUDWIGsburg, Germany (no joke!). Likely Germany’s biggest fan of John Bonham, owner of several collector’s devotionals such as very very very rare and old Ludwig gear, probably the most important trader of vintage spare parts in Germany and a really nice and enthusiastic buddy. He was recently forced to move his store to antother location, but luckily he found a large hall providing 2 floors: one for the store and one for his long time dream: a drum museum! Obviously a great opportunity for me to stage one of my SDSVs right there. Marcel was thankfull and keen about that idea so we had our appointment today for the handover. The museum is supposed to open in March. There is obviously still a lot of work to do but I am confident that this is going to be successfull. If you ever happen to be in the Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart area: Have a look at original Bonham, Keith Moon, Ginger Baker or Buddy Rich gear! After the official opening I will file more pictures subsequently…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Report | Comments Closed

1981-2011 – 30 years of hexagons

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

It must have been the first half of 1981 when Dave Simmons exhibited 3 sets of prototype pads

“During 1981, the company (still Musicaid EP) exhibited at the British Music Show at Olympia in London. They weren’t members of AMII, (the manufacturer’s association), so were forced to exhibit nearby in what was known as the ‘over the road show’, in a slightly sleazy hotel. It took them a week to get just three hand-built kits ready for it. One was heart-shaped and sprayed in some sort of velvet, another was ‘bat-wing shaped’, with no straight sides, and aimed somewhat optimistically at heavy metal drummers, while the third was the now familiar hexagonal shape which has become their trade mark. (Unbeknown to the general public, neither the ‘bat-wing’ nor the heart-shaped kits actually worked!). All three set up in precisely the same way, like a traditional drum kit, with a vertically mounted bass drum with wide-spreading, tubular spurs. The proportions were purposely kept close to those of acoustic drums, the small pads measuring 11 inches across the flats, with the bassdrum roughly 22 inches. ...” (The Complete Simmons Drum Book)

Posted in Brains, Pads, Report | 1 Comment »