Ludwig Bearing Recut
The matching high tom, floor tom, and snare drum in the studio are from a 1964 Ludwig kit. The snare drum is extremely versatile and is one of the best wooden snare drums I’ve ever recorded. Unfortunately, the high tom suffered from the poor quality control of Ludwig in the 60’s and had a 1/8” dip in the edge near the scarf joint between two lugs. I decided to recut the bearing edges by sanding a flat on both sides of the drum, running the appropriate round-over bit around the outside of the drum, and cleaning it up with some fine sandpaper.
The result was a much cleaner sounding tone from the drum that was easier to tune, plus even tension around the whole head.
