This is one hot colour on this solid maple 14x6 Lang Gladstone snare drum made by Arnie Lang . The drum itself was made for LA session drummer Brett Chassen and I got it in 2008 from Steve Maxwell. It features Billy Gladstone's three-way tuning system, die cast hoops and internal muffling system which runs on a scale of 1 to 10 - this is the device you can see next to the snare strainer.
The three-way tuning system features rods which go through the tube lugs from top to bottom allowing the user, by way of the special key mounted on the side of the drum, to tune either the top head, the bottom head or both heads at the same time from the top without turning the drum over. Although the system was useful before plastic heads became widespread, the introduction of the synthetic head meant that drummers weren't needing to tune their heads all of the time and the system became a little redundant. However, the system was reintroduced by Tama as 'Omni Tune'.
Due to the rods running through the lugs, it's a nightmare to change a head and took me about twenty minutes just to change the batter head the one time I did it. You can hear this drum on the track 'Brand New Cadillac' here.
More photos.
