W.F.L. - Ludwig 14x26 Vintage Bass Drum 1930s-1950s White Marine Pearl

W.F.L. - Ludwig vintage 14x26 bass drum.  Nickel single tension rods with center studs (both heads tension equally at each t-rod)--I don't know the date, but the center stud single tension rods could be 1930s-1950s.  The shell looks to be mahogany.  I do NOT know the full history of the drum; I've had it for about five years.

What I do know is that this drum was rescued and rehabbed by a fellow who had been a high school music teacher--he cleaned it up and stained the hoops a dark mahogany.  He installed modern bass drum spurs and two cymbal mounts--thus the original tension rods are nickel and the spurs and tom mounts are chrome.  The WMP wrap is very evenly creamy/yellowish and still beautiful; there is a cigarette burn from who knows when (not me); my guess is that this is the orginal wrap (who rewraps a drum then smokes a hole in it?).  There is one plugged hole on the bottom (see the pic); not sure what it would have been if not a vent hole.  

So this is by no means an ORIGINAL drum, with the added on chrome spurs/cymbal mounts and refinished hoops, but it sounds just fantastic.  You could replace the spurs/mounts with nickel hardware if you're a purist/aesthete, but it's certainly ready to go as is.

I bought this and used it as the anchor of an orphan kit; thought I would keep it and try to collect matching WFL toms but I just never got around to it.  The only things I've done are the fiberskyn ps3 on the reso and a clear ps3 on the batter; both are in great shape (and 26 heads are not cheap!).  This kick drum sounds GINORMOUS--what a bottom end! It out thumps a Rogers 14x26 I have.  

(The soundfile is just a Rode stereo condenser into my iPhone, sitting about six feet in front of the drum, no EQ.)