Drumhead commemorating Ludwig's 100th anniversary 1909-2009

The Winthrop University percussion studio recently toured Ludwig Industries in Monroe, NC. I remember touring Ludwig when they were located on N. Damen Avenue in Chicago while attending graduate school at Northwestern University in 1976. In the early 1980s the entire facility was moved to North Carolina. Many of those old machines I saw in action at the Damen Avenue facility are still in use today. “We had some incredible engineers designing machines,” said plant manager Jim Kinsey. “When we moved to Monroe, we figured ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ so we’ve just kept using those great old machines.”

Some little-known facts I learned on this tour:

Since there is such limited demand for 20″ fiberglass timpani, they don’t use a mold for the 20″ drums. If you order a complete five-drum set of fiberglass timpani, the 20″ will be made of aluminum and painted the same copper color. The original color of the fiberglass is whitish grey, and the original color of the aluminum is a dull silver.

Rack of timpani bowls ready for drilling

Drilling timpani bowl for the tuning gauge assembly

It takes two hours of sanding on a specially-designed machine to bring a copper timpani kettle to the mirror-like finish we are accustomed to.  

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I first met Artie Lieberman through Peyton Becton, Principal Percussionist with the Charlotte Symphony, several years ago (see the post from October ‘09 about Peyton’s recent visit to Winthrop here). I was playing with the symphony and made a remark to Peyton about their new orchestra bells. Peyton said, “They’re not new. Artie Lieberman refurbished them — even replated the bars.”  I looked Artie up. Soon he was retuning all the mallet instruments at Winthrop University. Turns out Artie had apprenticed at the old Deagan factory in Chicago as a young man. He had grown up in New York and studied with Fred Albright since childhood. It was Freddie Albright who encourged Artie to learn more about the manufacturing process and set up the apprenticeship with Deagan. Although Artie would eventually make his living in the automotive industry (starting with gas stations, then moving on to car dealerships and eventually the oil business), he never lost his passion for percussion instruments.

 

Today, Artie’s business, Mallet Instrument Service (with its subsidiary, Vintage Percussion) is thriving. When I first met Artie, I knew of Bill Youhass’ work with Fall Creek Marimbas and Gilberto Serna’s of Century Mallets in Chicago, but I had no idea we had an expert tuner and repairman right in our own community! “Been doing this for years,” said Artie. “Right now I’m working on the Boston Symphony’s xylophone, the London Symphony’s bells, and Bob Becker’s Deagan Artist Special.” But Artie,” I exclaimed, “you don’t even advertise!” “Don’t have to,” he replied in all sincerity.

Lionel Hampton’s 1920s vintage Deagan vibraphone

Artie’s father was a bread deliveryman in Manhattan. One of his best customers was Lionel Hampton, who liked to have his breakfast at a certain coffeeshop in Greenwich Village at 4:00 AM, when Mr. Lieberman typically delivered fresh bread. Artie’s father asked Lionel Hampton if he would recommend someone to teach his son to play drums. Hampton referred Mr. Lieberman to Freddie Albright, who agreed to teach young Artie, on the condition that they must begin on the xylophone. Once Artie learned to read music on the xylophone, they could begin to split the lessons between xylophone and drums. Lessons progressed nicely, and later on Mr. Lieberman again approached Lionel Hampton asking about the purchase of a used vibraphone for his son. Hampton replied that he happened to have one he wasn’t using and would sell it for $300.00. The recently refurbished instrument remains in Artie’s collection and is pictured above.    

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