Making Gladstone Drums

It started with a rather naive question to a machinists friend. "Do you think that you could make these special drum parts? He replied,"If you are willing to pay for it, we can make anything."

I showed him a few pieces of my original 1950 Gladstone snare- a tube lug, the three- way key, and a tube holder. Two months and six hundred bucks later, I had in my hand the beginnings of a ten year love affair with a most beautiful and wonderful instrument.

To help finance the original production, I offered a black lacquered gold plated replica for $500.00, half down with no guarantee of a delivery date. The offering of fifty drums was quickly sold out. Then the hard part began. The drum had not been made in 35-40 years and, to my knowledge all of the original molds and stampings were lost. I was obviously not a machinists, and so, most of the parts were "reverse engineered" to conform to my original. There was a lot of trial and error (with the emphasis on error).

After about a year I received a message on my answering machine from a young percussionist from Philadelphia. "Do you think that I will get my drum before I die?" My answer on her machine, "How old did you say you were? "

After we were able to finally ship the first snares, we expanded the original concept to include four inch and five inch sizes (The originals were only made in six inch and seven inch depth). We then made complete drum sets: a model with three- way tuning, another with replica Gladstone tube lugs and a third, a Vintage set with wooden hoops. Then came a number of different shell configurations including one-piece steam bent shells, stave shells, titanium shells, and segmented exotic woods.

Although we have made a number of technological changes using the new epoxies and longer lasting and safer lacquers, we have maintained the integrity and sound of the originals.