 Welcome to the drum history podcast. I'm your host Bart van der Zee and today I'm joined by Don Corder who is Jim Corder the founder of quarter drums on the show Don welcome Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here. Yeah So quarter is one of those really cool brands that I think a lot of drummers know about but it's it's really It's got a unique history And first off this was recommended by Brian Bayer who I believe you emailed back and forth a little bit and Brian has done a lot of research on the drum forums and Tried to put together a little bit of the history himself and we kind of figured Why not go to the man himself? Mr. Don here. So so yeah, Don, why don't you? Go back and tell us about the origins of Of quarter and I'll spell it out for people C-O-R-D-E-R. There's connections to fives. There's acrylic drums There's all kinds of cool stuff So tell us about quarter drums Okay, well quarter drums was basically my dad when he was young He was pushed off the steps of the school where he went to school and he bruised his hip and He got Tuberculosis of the bone in his heel. Oh my god, and I don't know if you're familiar with that disease or not, but He was bedridden for two years Wow, and he his leg basically his hip just disintegrated so he had a built-up shoe probably six inches and on one leg and You know, he never considered himself handicapped at all and so when he was in I think in high school He ordered a drum set and back then there was no local music store You know, he ordered it from Ludwig I think and Started playing the drums He worked his way through college. He had no help from his mom. He was a he was a single, you know, she was a Didn't have a husband at the time. His dad had passed away from tuberculosis What year was he born just so we we know that he was born in 1921. Okay. Yeah, he worked his way through college playing the drums With a big band, you know, they would play all these gigs and he would actually made enough money to send money home to his mom and so When he got out of college, he opened a music store He was he was just into music. He liked music, but he was a businessman That's what he got his degree on in college. Yeah and So he you know continued to play drums. We moved back to Huntsville and Then I think it was in the middle to late 60s He had a retail store here also because he had had one in Tuscaloosa and then he moved up here to Huntsville and he opened up another music store and And then he started thinking about the acrylic drums, you know, plexiglass plastics was big and coming on at this in the 60s Yeah, and so he made a plexiglass drum and I Remember now was it was so far ago, but I wish I remember riding my bicycle over to where he was working on on the drum and It just didn't mean anything to me. I just kept riding my boss it and anyhow, he Finished the drum and contacted Ludwig Drum company about You know, what kind of interest they not having that drum and according to my dad He took it up and met with Bill Ludwig Wow and dad got behind a curtain and and played one of Ludwig's snare drums and he played hit his snare drum that he'd made and Ludwig picked his snare drum as the better sound when he thought it was his the blind test test kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, and So dad tried to work something out with Ludwig But Ludwig and dad actually had gotten a patent on What he thought was clear, you know plexiglass drums But at the time Z-Coast and I don't know who all else was involved in man There was a bunch of people. Yeah doing that at the same time. Yeah, and come to find out the dad was pushing his drums is You could change inserts out. You could have a Champagne sparkle one night and a blue, you know sparkle the next week. You just Take the head off put a different insert that is so I was looking into that a little online And that is to me just such an awesome idea like I mean, so you just explained it really well, but just for my own, you know Brain to wrap around it. So you basically like you said you take the head off and then I guess there'd be little, you know Holes to kind of fit around the the you know the screws for the lugs But yeah, you're changing it to give blue drums one night then like you said sparkle I mean that is such a good idea and you can only do that because they're clear acrylic drums And you can see through them. So it's just like correct. Oh my god. I mean I've never Heard of that. So that's what his patent was on. Wow. So he asked when Ludwig started making the the One distillates or whatever shaded colors. Yep, he tried to try to sue him and there was a Law firm in Atlanta that looked at it and they go no No, you don't have a case. Yeah, sorry, you know, you just don't have a case. So You know years past and then dad sold his Music store and then found himself kind of flounder and he didn't know what to do You know saw all the money going out and nothing coming in. So then he started Custom clear drum company and started making Plexiglass shells and He would take people's drum sets if they were they wanted he would change them over drill the holes to match their hardware and Just basically change their whole shells out to acrylic shells. Wow, so he would just use Like if you have a Ludwig kit or whatever he would use their hardware their hardware, you know Because online there's some there's some like forums and things people are talking about like gosh That's like like they look at these I think there was some documentation about custom clear drum company Which is in you know, obviously in Alabama and they would say there's so much different hardware Which that makes perfect sense because it's just yeah It was just whatever they had at the time and whatever dad could come up with if he made a drum set It was made from just whatever he could scavenge, you know, he's sound so sounds like a very Like a businessman like you said but also just like an inventor like a very like well I can you know, like he just he got it done You know, yeah, he's got I look through the patent files trying to look at find the patent On the the the drums the interchangeable insert so I couldn't find it I could find one on the flute liar. I could find one on the He had one for a base drum with protective feet He had one on The music flip folder He had all he had he had several, you know, he tried to he tried to patent everything And I don't they never worked out for him, but that's okay, you know, you know They got they got to have the the guy who's just who's doing it I mean, there's there's something so impressive about that and I briefly looked into like now I feel like it's a little different probably Now versus then I don't know which side which one would be easier or harder, but man patenting Anything is really not easy and and it's expensive and it takes time and again This is a many years later in 2021 or at that point. I think it was 2020 when I was looking into it But so good for him. I mean, he's just he's covering all his bases trying to He's a sharp fella. Yeah, really. Okay, so better better man than me is all I can say Well, that's great. I mean, honestly, that's awesome that your dad is such an important person to you so I'm just interested too about and I think I was talking about this with When I was doing the Zico's episode with Wes Faulkner who Who who knew Bill Zico's because he's kind of known as the the inventor of like the acrylic drum Which it sounds like that's still sort of holds true I know there's other people doing multiple things, but it seems like your dad was like, okay other people are doing this and I think there is usually like a Two or three people can kind of be experimenting at the same time and it's like who comes first to market sort of thing So but right how did your dad? like was he working with Company who was manufacturing like a plastics manufacturer or the actual production of the early Acrylic the custom clear drum company, which was the original Company, I mean, how did he get these shells made? How did how did that? Do you know how that went? Well, he worked with a local plastic company. They had they had a like a big furnace They would put a sheet and they would cut the sheet to the size for the height of the drum and then they would put it in a Big oven to heat it up where it was pliable and then they would roll it over on a Basically a mold which would be the inside diameter of you know This the shell basically and So then so you had the outside diameter that would fit the head And then you would bevel bevel the edges where they came together and then you say Some kind of a cement to to bond the two together and you can actually buff that out and make it almost You know totally transparent you could be it would be sometimes hard to see where the seam was Wow and then you'd have to you know route the edges to Make a good bearing edge on the on the shell Yeah, now do you What did the badge? Did he have like a nice badge that said custom now? You know when we had the drum company. We never had a badge. We didn't we didn't serialize any of the drums Yeah, we just made them, you know, we we we were just We didn't know what we were doing to be honest with you. We just did the best we could with what we had and In There was no really no there was a sticker That we stuck on the drum, but there was no bags like where the tone hole is, you know, yeah Yeah, there was never was never a badge put on which makes you wonder how many you're floating around just kind of like Unlabeled if you know what I mean like like maybe there are people are thinking they're like a Japanese drum or something When really they were from you guys. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's possible. Yeah Yeah, interesting. So anyhow when dad had the custom clear drum come he had a guy named Terry cornet that worked that came to work with him and Terry was a drummer. He still is a drummer, you know, he worked with the Huntsville Symphony and he Work with dad with custom clear drum company until dad basically You know, he was doing that and then people knew he had a music store before and they would come in and they'd go You know, can you get me some guitar strings in can you get me this can you get me that so he ended up just basically merging into a full music retail store again and The the custom clear kind of Just floundered just played on the sides and so dad dad was a a Martin guitar authorized dealer And so the Martin dealer knew that dad piddled in drums and one day he just asked him. He said, you know we're making these drums and We're a guitar company and we're kind of wanting to get out Of the drums, which you be interested in buying You know the inventory that goes yeah, you know, so they sent him a big list of Stuff that they had and it was worth You know hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah, according to what they had listed and My older brother Gary was working with dad at the store. He'd already graduated from college and Dad said I don't have the money. I don't have that kind of money to buy this over the love to do it and my older brother Geary says make them an offer yeah and He said just low ball make them an offer they can they can refuse it or they can take it Yeah, so that dad made them an offer and by George they accepted it Wow, so It was in I think The early winter of 79 When they shipped that stuff down from Pennsylvania three tractor trailer loads. Wow, and I mean, you know We got to say to that that the it was fives. I mean so they Yes, it was five. Yes. Yes, so but we we weren't able to buy we weren't able to use five names because yeah, Martin We're still making drumsticks under the vibes names and they would not relinquish that night. Yeah, which was a you know That's okay. We were we were just wanting to make drums. Yeah. Yeah, so There is a fives episode out there that people can check out with Tommy Robertson. So basically CF Martin acquired fives in 1970 ish if I'm not mistaken but then they so so just to kind of You know reiterate all that then they sold it to your dad the drum that the the Equipment and like the tooling and just so he just now had basically like a drum factory Right. Yes in 1970 the most the die casting dies to make all the lugs the Tom mounts The four leg mounts Wow everything and So we got that stuff and they we didn't have a place to put that so we we rented some space in the Huntsville industrial complex our center Which was an old Textile mill Built in the 1800s. I think it was old, you know, yeah and We were there probably Two months maybe because I actually looked it up and then it was in February in 1980 They don't know how it happened, but that meal caught on fire. We were in the basement We were there. We had a solid slab of concrete above us, which the building set on and we were in the basement and That building burned to the ground And I remember going up to dad's house and you can kind of lived up on a hill but you can kind of look out over Huntsville and We could see that thing burn Wow, and I'm I'm standing there and These explosions happen, you know, you see See something happening and all of a sudden you hear a big boom and I'm I go when there goes my settling tank You know because I had all I had stuff down there that I was using to build Stuff too long. We had to wall in an area the whole area downstairs underneath that slab was just open And you told them how much space you needed and then you built a wall around the space that you rented and it was kind of kind of unique and So it burned to the ground and because of that dad was Eligible for a small business administration loan and We acquired a piece of property or he acquired a piece of property and built a building five thousand square foot building which was packed the first day we It was it was and then I really Started acquiring machines to do the stuff that I wanted to do to make parts because that's what I did Yeah dad was dad was the president, you know, he was he was he was everything my older brother Gary Was the numbers cruncher? He would he when we were in production He would go stand by whoever was doing what they were doing and time them and Really he crunched he made he came up with the prices of the things that we yeah, someone's got to do it We sold yeah, yeah, and that's what he did Wow, man, and well, I got to mention my younger brother to Tim my younger brother He ended up doing all the lacquer finishes on the shelves He got really good at that. That's awesome. I didn't realize how much of a family I mean, I knew it was your dad and you but what that's great So it's awesome. Your brothers were involved as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, couldn't have done it without yeah Everybody's everybody's health and Terry cornet the guy mentioned earlier He came and worked for us. Oh, that's cool And a guy named Bill von camp that dad knew through the music store Came and worked and he's the one that started that actually ended up covering all the shelves and he opened up the business later on after we sold and Was some drum shells and covering and stuff like that. So cool, but me I'm stuck I'm stuck back in my corner. I was just like Where I was in school. Yeah, basically. Yeah, and learning how to I made you will not You cannot imagine How many parts? Individual parts go into making a drum And a drum set sure it's just phenomenal. Yeah, you know, yeah really to make it actually We yeah, we basically had You know most of that stuff outsourced and then I would go dad if I can get this way I Can make this part And so I we started buying machines a little at a time bought it, you know a milling machine And I could make I ended up making some dies to do this the stamping Yeah, of You know metal parts part of the hoops made made things to make to make the snare Had a bridge on it wasn't just a cut out It actually had a bridge on it because the fives throw off which we ended up manufacturing You know it kind of did drops down quite a bit so that bridge had to clear The edge of the hoop to allow the snares to drop down off the snare side of the shell Yeah, man. Well, let me ask you this. All right. So backing up before we get too far forward I have a couple two questions. All right. So the fire Yeah, that happened. Okay, but you guys you said you were under that huge concrete slab was most of your stuff Salvageable or was everything destroyed because you had that giant blots. It's weird if you were we were close to a Window close to the outside It's like a basement with a window up the top. Yeah There was still enough heat that it would ignite if the wall that with the plate dumb plywood wall that we built Caught on fire and burned just like a wick. Yeah, it just burned down and So there were no wooden shells. There were a few plexiglass shells and they went up, you know, we had we had a lot of hoops That were underwater because we were in the basement and they're flooding water on everything they could Well, it flooded it flooded downstairs. Everything was pretty much. So we had a lot of tension rods Oh Gosh die-cast parts, you know lugs lugs melted makes a lot. Some of them were just in a big glob Ang it so to speak. Yeah, and It was a mess. It was the real mess was the equipment like I mean cuz you bought all that your dad bought all that fives Stuff was that could you then I mean it's giant metal equipment. I mean was it salvageable itself the actual? Oh, yeah. Okay. So yeah, I was gonna say yeah We were able we were able to salvage. We you know, we had to we got two punch presses obi Which was oh, you know, I don't drummers could probably don't care anything about this but obi I mean just got an open back and it's Clenable so you can kind of tilt it back in the parts with stamping They'll just fall off. They'll fall off or shoot through the bottom of the die when you stamp parts. Yeah Those were fine. Those are fine the the machine that we that we got from With the company To we would actually get blanks hoop blanks metal hoop blanks like the triple flange hoop blanks And we could set them on this machine and index them And flare them out to punch holes for six eight ten or twelve Um plug drums and that made it a little bit of work after it But it was you know, it was still it's totally still usable man. They built it to last it's a take Oh, yeah fire and literally like fire hose amount of water coming down Wow and then all right so my other question to just to clarify for myself just with with the fives acquisition was Did that get you guys Shell manufacturing stuff or was it really mainly just like hardware Manufacturing machinery or was it everything so were you creating them shells with the fives equipment? It was pretty much everything. I remember they had a a big apparatus For lack of a better term. Yep, and it had it had pillow block bearings. It was two eight inch i-beams that were connected and long shafts From one i-beam to the other supported by pillow block bearings and Then on the end of that shaft was a big Plate aluminum plate that you could mount different cylinders to that were made out of you know aluminum And that's what they used to when they would make a fiberglass shell they would Put the mat in there and then spin it and start adding I'm going by the way. I thought they would have done it sure because I never saw it done Yep, and then they would add the resin to it and since it's being spun like like the centrifugal force would throw the resin out and And you just keep spinning until until it's set up And that's how they made awesome. That's how they made the shelf. We never we never got into that I think we ended up selling that to somebody and I don't know why but It was just in the way. Well, I was gonna before we started I was just gonna say that we talked about how your dad didn't want to get involved with fiberglass He said no which That seems like a lot of work I think it just goes to show that it's awesome for the companies that did and do but I get that your dad didn't want to get Involved with fiberglass. So you guys were typically wood shells at that point I'm assuming acrylic sort of some acrylic. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah But he was basically pushing the wood shells. Yeah, that makes sense little bit easier to work with a Lot easier we would buy we would buy long tubes From a company who's no longer in business. I think Jasper wood products Was the one the company that we we got shells from the first time and they made all kinds of plywood products Tables, I think I don't know what all they made but they could set up and and make the shells and they would And we would get like a 16-inch diameter shell may be 36 feet or 36 inches long Yeah, 32 inches long. So you cut it and have to make to 16 by 16 four times That makes sense. I know then you're making all of the Hardware and all that stuff to put on there out of all that that, you know, great equipment You were there in the corner stamping things. Yes. I was in the corner and that was my little world I remember I remember my brother Gary coming back there and timing me and I'm standing there and he just started laughing. He goes You don't even realize I'm here. Do you and I startled I go, you know, no, I don't I'm so involved in what I'm doing But he just he just basically started laughing. So yeah, I was in my own little world back there and I loved it. I loved it. I love Making new things. It was a challenge to me to make to make things. Well, yeah Absolutely, it's neat to me too to like if you if you look at a, you know, quarter drums just to think that like How much hands-on stuff from your family from the quarter family is is involved in in these drums It really makes it you kind of look at them a little different It's just a you know, a small American brand and especially in Alabama. You don't really I'm sure there's some others But man, you don't hear too many here of too many drum brands in Alabama. Yeah, well, let me tell you what don't let this secret out Alabama is a great state to live in sure, but we don't want anybody else coming We're getting enough people moving in. Yeah, the secrets probably already out. Yeah, it's a great place That's good to know. All right. Well, let's get back on the timeline here and So your dad got you guys your dad got the small business loan. You're in your new You know, we'll call it a factory Take it from there. What what year was that? Happening that the transfer over to the new after the fire. Oh, it probably taught it probably took about Eight months to a year to get the building done where we can be in Yeah, and they there's that old saying about most businesses don't recover after a fire Like, you know, like restaurants and stuff. So you guys that that was a real trial. Yeah. Yeah, we weren't hurt too bad You know the diecast dies were Off of the die caster up in the northeast somewhere. I forget the name of that company The things that were actually made them the major part of the things that we used on drums Wasn't there they weren't even they weren't even in house. Yeah, that's lucky man All right, so carry on with the history there What happened after that and and were you guys at that point? Maybe we we also talked a little bit about your public Image and like, you know, how quarter was doing in the because you you know, the whole goal is to sell the drums So how are things going with with selling and getting these things out in the world? Well, that's what dad dad was so he was a salesman And that's what that's what he did, you know, he was all constantly doing that They never ended. You know never ended He wanted to get into the marching band. Oh sure line of drums. And so we got into that and My older brother Committed we're making we're making lots of money on the quads when we would do when we would make quads He said we're not making so much on the bass drums, but we're we're killing it on the quads More quads. Yeah, that's great. That's a never-ending market there the marching band world And those folks can those folks can destroy a snare drum Really they crank it down to where you're like banging on a tabletop I don't understand that but I'm not a drummer. So yeah Well, that that was one of my questions later was because because a lot of people who work in Drum manufacturing aren't drummers. So you yourself were not a Drummer, I'm sure you've you've played the drums. No, no, not my older brothers. It was saxophone and keyboard and I've finally started playing the guitar a little bit my younger brother played mandolin for a little while But he he hadn't picked that up in years So we weren't really a music musically inclined family Well, your manufacturers and and that's all that's pretty important right there All right, so quarter you know, I as I'm seeing it was it was going strong until about Then in like 1990-ish. So what happened so we we were in this late Started in the late late 70s 79. So then take us through there. So the 80s were pretty good What what what were some milestones along the way there? spy at things were just You know to me rolling smooth. Yeah, and then all of a sudden We were we were actually Sitting out of the table. I can't remember what we were were producing dad walks up and his eyes are crossed and I'm I'm going what's up with that? You know, yeah he he started having problems with Not his mental capacity at that time, but he started having things go wrong And he just told me one day in fact he told me but I've come to find out He didn't tell my older brother or my younger brother. He said I got something going on. He said I need to get out of this business and So then he pursued trying to you know trying to get a buyer to buy the business and we Tried to keep it from all the employees, but they knew something was up. They were go What's going on? We're not coming out with a new catalog, you know, what? Something's going on. I didn't know what to tell him. So I just went back to my little corner and kept making Yeah, I kept making parts Oh I'm sorry to hear that I'm gonna find out dad. He died in 1999 of Alzheimer's The last last six months of his life He he couldn't if he tried to speak it was words. You had never heard he couldn't even Speak the English language anymore. It was he would just make up words and I don't know how someone of Alzheimer's can make up words, but he did and It was very really sad to Yeah, yeah, see him go through that man Yeah, I do remember there was a guy that worked for us also for a little while already deigned and a dean started his real name It's kitchen burger or something. I forget what it is Mary Ann Ramsey who was our secretary She had to write the check so she couldn't write a check to already Dean because that wasn't his real name So she had to write the check to his you know, what's on his birth certificate? I guess or yeah, so security card Anyhow, he he approached me He was into this vintage stuff And and he said can you make these two blocks? And I go Yeah, yeah, I can make that So he said well, I can sell them if you can make them so I started trying to you know to make some of the two blogs and then Dad my brother's found out they said you can't do that, you know, you can't come in here and make something that we could sell And so I felt bad about already because I told him we could do it, but I couldn't so we started making snare drums with two blocks yeah, cool and I don't know if anybody else was doing that at the time or not. I really don't I Don't know, you know, what was on the in the drum market at that time I was just in my own little world. Yeah, so we we made that we made two blocks. We made I remember we made See the six and a half eight inch snares six and a half and the regular size snare I think we made some piccolo snares out of out of two blocks to cool and that ended up being a pretty Pretty big hit. Yeah Everybody's kind of started wanting two blocks and So that was the start of that which I still do I still make some two blocks. Oh, yeah, they're they're popular today I mean, I even think of like in the mid 2000s. There was like a big boom with with two blocks I mean, they've been they are cool. I mean, they're really really neat Drums, what about so in that? You know, let's say in the 80s We're what about endorses and stuff. I'm I was looking earlier on I think the drummer world Discussion like the forum and I think Bermuda Schwartz Yeah, yeah, you know plays weird now. I believe he said he was an endorser What what other endorses, you know, people play in your drums. Did you guys have I think I think a guy named Barrett Dean's Yeah was an endorsing. Yeah, the world's fastest drummer quote-unquote at some point in time, which I know is debatable But buddy didn't like that pretty sure buddy. Yeah, well, yeah, cool And another guy gosh, I can't remember his name He went into the Guinness's World Book of Records for playing the drums the longest I don't think he used to one of our drums, but I think he used some of the sticks Dad actually came up with a nylon tip but it was a nylon sleeve and That you could take a drum stick and run it through this is like a pencil sharpener And and it would cut it down to where the sleeve would fit on you You just glue that you know because if you're doing a rim shot with a You know on a snare drum that sometimes your sticks would fray. Yeah further up the horse That was supposedly to keep the stick from praying if you did a rim shot. So smart. He's an inventor. I don't know Yeah, he was he really was He saw a need and he wanted to come up with something to feel that that boy that wasn't there. Yeah but wow to And throw anything else out there, but really that that that 1979 to 1990 I mean like you said, it's you know depending on where in the in 79 pretty much. That's 10 years 11 years like Really got going and a lot of ups and downs in a pretty short amount of time there I mean that is to become a drum company that people are still talking about 31 years later after it, you know went close the doors It's pretty amazing. That's you should be proud of your your family Yeah, well, I am I'm still still trying to Do things that our family started sometimes such as the two bluffs, but yeah, I'm slowing down on that I'm just can't I can't stand and buff Buffing machine. Yeah for the hours it takes to do it. Oh, yeah Yeah, I'm sure so You know again, like I said throw anything else in and if I'm if I'm if I'm missing anything there in the In the 80s, but what happened with Towards the end there. I mean, I know I remember and with the fives episode. It was like a radio programmer Sammy Darwin, right? I think he kind of Took yeah, he was the player right dad's dad sold the drum company to Sammy Darwin and when they When they actually bought it they drove over from I you can miss Mississippi. It was a two-hour one-way drive every day Geez, they would hop in a car and take off and drive over to Huntsville and Work all day and turn around drive back and To learn the process of what we were doing and Showing them how everything went And how you know how the process and we that we went through from making the drums Yeah, and they did that until as I Remember looking I went into business in 1991 so Somewhere in that transition period was when Darwin finally came over with a bunch of trucks and they loaded all everything up with those trucks and I stayed there for a little while. I had all my stuff in a In another corner And walled off I said this stuff doesn't go And um, wow, I had a one little screw machine that I had personally bought that I made The threaded inserts, you know the inserts that go inside the um The die-cast lug sure Um, I bought I bought the cams to do To do that part And that was amazing, you know to watch that machine Because it would it would drill and then it would center drill drill and then tap the part and then Turn the outsides down to a threaded insert and part it off And it would do one every 14 seconds Wow And that machine just sat there and ran and it still runs in my shop the same way Just that's what I make the post for the tube lugs on is that machine now man, sometimes you look at this hardware and you forget that like um Well a lot of times now it is like just a robot or something but you look at you forget that the threading and these Pete in the buffing Is done by a person. Um, oh, yeah, it's just amazing. So you were doing your own thing there if they if they sold everything else So you were doing were you doing hardware? Obviously for quarter but in in the you know 90 and on then did you continue making drum hardware on your own and I know you said you're still kind of working on it I mean, what what's the story with that? Just the tube lugs, which is only a brass, you know a brass tube lugs. Yeah I didn't I really didn't have a Source to sell anything else and a lot of that stuff's hard to make You know, um the die cast parts you got to build a die casting die And have a company that run it for you because I you know, you can't You can't run that stuff in the house unless you got a big shop and a big place to put a big die cast machine um sure So yeah, wow and you can but you're still selling them, correct? You can still buy people can buy tube lugs from you, right? Yeah Yeah, and I I make them I had one guy um He thought my prices were a little high, which I don't think they are but um You know, yeah, he asked about a size. I said, where else can you get that size mate? You know, I make them any size you want Yeah, that's 15 inches long from one inch up to 15 inch anything in between And um, I don't think china's making that they'll make certain sizes, you know themselves certain sizes, but for a custom length drum or tube lug um I don't know anybody else who was doing it. They may be I'm sure there are Yeah, of course, but it's cool. It's just because it's you and it's got the history and and um, you know, I'll say that people can go to quarter corder products.com And uh, you know You can keep don busy Yeah Making some of those tube lugs. Wow. Thank you bark. Yeah Geez what an unbelievable story, I mean that's it's um it had to be pretty upsetting to like Uh sell your this brand I mean, obviously your dad faced a situation where he kind of had to um, and it seemed like it was He knew there was no future for him. You know, that's just sad to say My older brother had actually gone back and gotten his mechanical engineering degree So he I guess he saw the writing on the wall and my younger brother went back and got his um degree in finance And I went back to the school of hard knocks and just didn't do anything except Learned to keep my hands greasy on working on machines and stuff like that But you guys you learned because of this drum company or you you kind of like you learned absolutely I learned so much if I knew Then what I know now Oh, it'd been katie barbador because there's no telling what we could have been making and Yeah, it was a great absolutely great Learning experience for me. That's awesome. And um, yeah Wow, just ebay ebay wasn't out at the time where you can go on and buy tools um To put on these machines to make the parts all it's That's that places I've tooled up my machines Through um buying stuff off ebay really. Wow. Yeah these old I'm sure there's Everything's worth something to someone. You know what I mean? We're like if if if you come across stuff like that you can you can always part it out and the guy's like you who need that One. Oh, yeah specific thing. Oh Wow fascinating knurling tools, you know, um, oh gosh, yeah diecast or the die heads to do the threading on outside Um, you know screw Sure. Um, yeah, that's that's that's great. Well, you know, um, I still think that your dad's idea about those inserts um, did anything ever come of that like did any of those exist out in the world because I think that Obviously it had to be done right where they're not like sliding off or like they have to be connected correctly But did anything ever come of that? No, nothing ever ever came of that. I know because really to do it, right You would have to take one head off And then you would have to go in there and take all the screws out Yeah, oh, I see and then put the insert in and then Everything match up with the you know, the holes match up with your insert um Your new blue spark or whatever to match up with the hole pattern for the screws And um, it would just it just it was labor-intensive to change out an insert Obviously it would look a little different than if it was a nice blue sparkle wrap on the outside So you'd have to play with your Um, what finishes look great and and all that stuff. Um, so I'm sure there'd be a lot of It's cheaper than buying a new drum set in a different color Yeah, yeah, yeah Wow, and you could also I put lights in one. Oh sure you could do Christmas lights You could do anything, you know, I I don't know if dad's patent, you know, which is has expired years years ago um Yeah, if anything like that could be done or you could do somebody with an artistic mind could Make a drum set just Shine exactly that'd be awesome cool, well don um This is all fascinating and I want to let everyone know who's listening don is going to be kind enough to do a Patreon the bonus episode that we do on the show and um, we decided that it'd be fun to talk about um catalogs with quarter and because I think that's an interesting, uh Sub, you know, we didn't really talk much about that and it's it's it's you're putting your best foot forward And you're presenting your drums in the best light in this catalog and I'm sure it's Behind the scenes always a little chaotic and some some funny things can happen there. So um, if you want to Check out that and then many other bonus episodes go to drumhistorypodcast.com and there's a become a patron Button so you can go there and check it out and don and I will record that episode right after we finish this one here shortly but um Don I want to thank you for being here and sharing your family's story with me. Um, it's it's uh, you're you should be Like I said and you are you should be very proud and your dad gym quarter just seems like a great businessman Who his legacy is still going uh strong today. So and then also brian bayer be yer Thank you so much for connecting me with don and emailing and all that good stuff Um, so don yeah, thank you so much for being here. No, you're welcome. It was a pleasure to Share what little information I have so yeah, it was great. Thank you If you like this podcast find me on social media at drumhistory and please share rate and leave a review And let me know topics that you would like to learn about in the future Until next time keep on learning