Ray's Drum Service
About 1966 I met a man with an amazing background. I only wish I had, at 16, the curiosity that came to me later. Ray Poland was about 70, I think, and ran a repair and sales business in his home and garage.
Ray had been a foreman at Leedy Manufacturing, joining them in about 1920 and staying through the Indianapolis and Elkhart years before moving back to Indianapolis sometime after 1955.
Today I own pictures that he kept of the two Leedy factories. Ray was the foreman of painting and then for all woodworking.
He kept the neatest workship I ever saw. Screwdrivers hanging on order by length -- lots of parts separated into Ball jars. He could do anything. I remember seeing a Gretsch snare drum with a Ludwig strainer and no extra holes. First, I was confused and then I saw that a thin ply of wood was glued over the original part of the shell where the strainer was mounted. That wood was painted silver to match.
Leedy advertised that drum owners could sent their drums back to the factory for updating. I bet Ray did that.
Ray Poland was part of a lost breed -- a craftsman from the old days -- a company man to the end. For the rest of his life he continued working in the area he knew and loved. Ray wasn't a drummer, he just made generations of us better players. He ran what George Way called "The Drummer's Service Station."
If you'd like to learn more about Leedy Manufacturing, then I invite you to order my book from Modern Drummer, The Great American Drums. |
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