Blog Post July 6th 2019 - Tone Mufflers & Crimped Threads

If you're like me, you've said the tone muffler prayer.  "Sweet Lord, as I unscrew this Ludwig tone muffler, please let it be smooth all the way to the end, thus not having to use two sets of the Devil's Pliers.  Amen."  Well, turns out that this seemingly random occurrence of having to get the pliers wasn't so random at all.  Thanks to a gent on Facebook for teaching me!

The Ludwig factory actually crimped some of the end threads of the tone muffler shaft intentionally to keep the users from accidentally dumping the barrel nut into the drum.  Thus those crimps.  The apparent nature of which ones were crimped and which ones were not is attributable to the time period and the policy at the time.  I've learned to simply use a 10-32 die or "Thread Chaser" to straighten those threads easily, saving time and aggravation.   Thinking back to all the time I spent carefully covering tone mufflers and barrel nuts with microfiber, and absolutely cranking on two sets of pliers, I have to laugh.  As that wise Facebook poster said, "we're Drummers, not APES!"

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BECAUSE OLD DRUMS RULE