ROPE TENSION DRUMS

 

 

A young drummer, recently out of military service, has big ideas about how to make rope tension drums, and has the craftsman’s skills to match.

The fact that this sentence describes Pat Cooperman in the 1950’s, a WWII Navy vet and drummer with the Mt. Vernon VFW Post 596 Colonial Greens, and today describes Dave Loyal, a 3rd Infantry veteran and former Old Guard drummer, says a lot about why and how the Cooperman family chose Loyal Drums to take Cooperman rope drums into the future. Following a classic rope drum maker’s tradition, Cooperman and Loyal began the process of “passing the torch” last April. To answer some of the questions that have come up since then:

Cooperman Company continues to make everything they are known for except the Cooperman rope drums – drumsticks, frame drums, fifes, bentwood shells and hoops, historical toys and games, OEM work for other makers, and so forth. Just call or email Jim or Patsy at Cooperman’s for these items, or you can find most of them at the Cooperman online store, http://www.coopermanstore.com/

As Jim takes a step back from making new drums to focus on his maintenance, repair, and restoration work, Dave Loyal is taking on the hand crafting, start to finish, of Cooperman Series and Loyal Series rope tension drums. For new drum orders, you can contact Loyal Drums directly, or contact Jim or Patsy at Cooperman if you feel that some context would be useful during the changeover.

Loyal Drums will be carrying a deep stock of parts and accessories. There are hundreds of these items to transition between the Cooperman and Loyal stores; these items will remain active in the Cooperman online store until they are available in the Loyal store, at which point the Cooperman listing will link out to the Loyal listing. Of course you can still just contact Cooperman or Loyal directly to place an order or ask a question – email, telephone, social media, whatever is most convenient for you.

Loyal Drums is committed to supporting all the Cooperman drums made over these last 43 years of the Cooperman shop’s 57 year history, so that parts will remain available and documentation will be preserved, even as he starts to put his own spin on drum design.

SPECIAL OFFERS: We still have a few showroom samples and one-off prototypes of Cooperman shop drums for sale, as well as used drums, restored drums, and refurbished drums from time to time.   These are listed on the “special offers” page on this site, and at http://www.coopermanstore.com/Rope-Tension-Drum-Specials-and-Ready-To-Ship-P648.aspx on our online store. Please call us (802 463 9750) or email us ( jellis@cooperman.com) if you are interested in one of these drums and would like more information.

DRUM MAINTENANCE INFO Rope Drum Maintenance Manual