BLACKNESS

How many times has this happened already? I see something interesting, covet it, the deal falls through or I reluctantly pass, then find something much better shortly after.

JB Music was on a major "Handog" sale last month, and the markdowns on the new Pearl Sensitone Heritage series caught my eye. PhP12.9k for a 14x5 aluminium, and 13.7k for a 14x6.5 aluminium was an extreme bargain. I don't have an aluminium snare yet, so this looked like my chance. But the more I looked at my existing snares, the more I hesitated. I'm pretty much covered for sizes, and I never set all of them up the same time anyway. So after weeks of rumination, I finally let the sale pass. 

Two days later, I saw what looked like a 14x5 Black Beauty, the legendary black nickel on brass snare from Ludwig, in the FB marketplace at a price I could afford. Research on the seller seemed legit. He was a regular Japan surplus seller based in Pangasinan, with everything from fishing poles, to camping tents, light furniture, guitar amps, amateur keyboards, and a few drum related stuff. He showed me a correspondence with another customer, Moon Fortuno, who was getting a high-end double pedal at the same time. I didn't hesitate anymore. I pounced! It arrived two days later. 

I took it apart after the prefatory disinfection, and found two things. 1) It had no lug gaskets. The previous owner must have removed it to get more resonance. Fine with me. It's easier to tame an overactive instrument than a dead one. 2) Just like my Oak/Maple Hybrid, old Ludwig throw offs are problematic. In addition to it coming with the much-maligned P85 throw and P33 butt panel, one of the lock screws of the throw had a loose thread.  I replaced the screw with an awkward but temporarily working one, then ordered a new P88ac throw/butt set. 

I have it set up now with coated Ambassador batter and a Diplomat snare side. The sound is absolutely WICKED! Boisterous, bright, and happy, with rich harmonic overtones (as opposed to steel's usually inharmonic ones). I have it pitched between my Omar Hakim Signature and Pearl Masters Brass snares, and will be experimenting with other tunings later. 

I never thought I would own a Black Beauty. But then I never thought I would own eight (!) snares either. 

P.S. After weeks of waiting, Amazon sent me box with a cheap looking generic throw and no butt plate. Grrrrrrrr. Thankfully they paid for the return, and sent me a real P88ac set a week later. The BB looks and feels complete now. 

PRESTIGE

In the process of re-wrapping my venerable mid-1970s 12" and 16" Pearl Thunderking toms in purple, I discovered some serious ply-separation. And to make matters worse, the wraps started creasing after attaching the lugs. The 16" still sounded ok but the 12" kinda lost its focus. 

Then last month I saw a 12" x 8" Pearl Prestige Series tom going for real cheap in Cavite. I hesitated for a week before contacting the seller, only to find our he had already sold it. A few days later, it surfaced again, but by another seller, at a slightly higher price, and again somewhere in Cavite. This time I did not wait. I snagged it immediately. 

Upon arrival, I changed the heads to my favorite Ambassador Coated batters and clear resos, and 2.3mm triple flanged hoops. The inside of the drum was beautifully finished, more like a high end snare than any tom I've ever had. And the overtones are more spread out than my 10" Decade Maple, but more focused than my old Thunderking. 

I've been trying to learn more about the Prestige Series, but all I can find are early 1990s used kits in Japan, with no description of the wood used. The word Prestige was also added as prefix to the more known Session lines, the forerunners of today's Session Studio Selects. these were   mid level professional kits with fine finishing and hardware. 

Someone is offering me a 16" floor tom in the same series, in the same color. Who knows, it might be the feature in my next post.