From a not-so-recent post that I made in this section earler, I said that my university (Western Michigan University) marches Ludwig drums. To say the least............WE NEED NEW DRUMS! Oh dear lord! I can't even begin to describe the problems we had this year with our equipment. I am looking to get a new deal with a new company. Has anyone had any experience in this area? Can anyone give me suggestions or tips of what to do?I have a contact at Pearl and he might be able to hook us up.

Our drumline got a free drum once. We had a 5th snare come in during mid-season and we needed a 5th drum so my director called all of the high schools if they had a spare we could borrow and one of them said they did and that we could keep it. So we get the drum and it turns out to be a piece of $hi+. Our drums are bad but not that bad, you see we have black Premiere and the free drum was a white Yamaha. I think it was an old SFZ could be wrong. Anyways they gave it to us with broken head, 6 missing lugs, the rim on the top is bent a little and one of the bars on the side was cracked. It was actually stained yellow rather than white. Anyway yea thats about it for me getting free drums. Call up your local high schools and see if they could spare one for you.

no, maybe I wasn't very specific, We are looking to get an entire line of drums FREE from a drum company. Actually alot a lot of universities have deals with drum companies like that; you get a complete new line of drums, the the line wil use them for a year, at the end of the year the line sends them back to the company, and the company sells them at a reduced "used" rate. We used to have that deal with Yamaha but since we are don't get our football games on TV very much, they pulled their endorsement. That's why Ludwig came in, and that's why we're looking for something different.

Our line tried to be sposored by Turkey Hill to get money for new drums. We took a picture of us warming up in their parking lot with ice tea bottle in front of us, and then we sent that in with a letter asking for money, however they said they couldn't sposor us. We also tried getting a grant from the school, that also failed. We ended up just repainting them. But try buisnesses to get donations and stuff like that.

i think moldydrummer is refering to endoresments, i don't know if marching is the same way but my instructor in high school was endorsed by Pearl, he pretty much told me there were 3 levels of endosement,

level 3 is a low profile, you recieve a discount on the equipment, usually at cost through a dealer. although there is usually a limit to how much you can buy per year.

level 2 high profile, usually some free equipment in exchange for any advertising, usually not much more then hardware.

level 1 star profile, even the big boys don't get much free equipment most sets they use at clinics are ordered by the dealer and then sold, some sets free in exchange for any advertising.

not sure if it still works this way anymore or not. but my instuctor was a level 2,

but that was drum set, now with marching i really don't know any band, corps, or any organization that get free drums. drum corps turn their drums back to the factory after a season (Yamaha 2 seasons) the bands i seen with endorsements paid for their equipment at costs.

it think when it comes to marching percussion now a days, its more of a myth that groups get totally free drums. if they do its always in exchange for advertising or something that brings in more bussiness for the drum company, but i'm sure that is rare. a new set of battery drums will run into the 10s of thousands, and drum companies can't afford to do that anymore.

best thing is look for local sponsors that will help front the money for new drums.

wow, i live RIGHT BY wmu. great school. too bad your endorsement got pulled, if i were you i would talk to Pearl [since Yamaha obviously is no longer interested] and pull the ol' 'competition between companies' thing. i mean, come on. tell them you have yamahas but don't think they work as well as pearls or whatever. or try to fundraise, maybe? after you sell the old drums to somewhere else, you should have some cash and then you could fund-raise the rest. but thats work.

Thank you multi-Thomm for understanding. Well I do know that last year we had the Yamaha deal they gave us free drums, free carriers, and a few stands, when they pulled their deal, Ludwig came in and tried to pull out all the stops, but it didn't work. So i do know that the free deals are out there. Michigan State University, University of Michigan, are the ones that I know for sure that have those deals with Yamaha around here. After PASIC I plan on speaking with a few guys from Pearl to see what we can do.

ya i went to that band day that you had. man where those drums a peace. ummmmm some drum corps will dump their drums and if your school is in contact with the maker they might just give you the drums for free. i know that what they do in texas. talk to some people. casey should know.

are you guys sure your getting free drums? at my college i thought we were getting free drums, and it turned out that the drum company was billing the college, and nobody in the music department knew.

but hey it you get it for free man take advantage, even i would take some free Ludwigs....well....maybe not.

ha talk about old drums my school has singerland snares which the mechanisms broke off and nobody makes them so we have to get rid of those. we also have tri toms made by singerland which the head and the rim are one peice so when that broke we couldnt get new heads because again of course they arent made anymore. and lastly our basses i dont even know what they are but i was told by my band director that they were marching tympini idk. but the point of this whole thing is if u can get decent drums at a good price take care of them. even more if they are free