top of page

1964 Ludwig Jazz Festival 
Oyster Black Pearl
Snare Drum

1964 Ludwig Jazz Festival snare drum that came with Ringo Starr's 1964 Downbeat model Sullivan drum kit. Gary Astridge historian lecturer curator.

Photo: Scott Robert Ritchie

This is a Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl (OBP) Jazz Festival snare drum with a four-digit badge number (6734). This badge number helped determine that this drum came with Ringo's second OBP drum kit, which was purchased at Manny's Music Store in Manhattan on February 9, 1964. 
 
When The Beatles first came to the US in 64', Ringo brought with him a new Beatles logo drum head, his cymbals and the OBP snare drum from his first Ludwig OBP kit, which was left behind in the UK. The purchase of the second OBP kit was prearranged for the reason that in the near future, Ringo was going to need one kit for the recording studio and another for the movie set of A Hard Day's Night. Filming was scheduled to start shortly after the band return to England. 
 
It just so happened that Ringo used his first OBP snare drum throughout his time with The Beatles. All photos, videos, film clips and firsthand accounts verify this as fact. The snare drum shown above may have been used by Ringo in the studio but there is no public documentation to verify. What has been verified is that Paul McCartney did use this snare drum.
 
When recorded his first solo album "McCartney", he borrowed a combination of first two drum kits. He used the bass drum and tom from Ringo's first OBP and the snare drum and floor tom from his second. Paul continued to use this mixed kit when his began recording some of his initial Wings tunes.
 
This snare drum was sold at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills on December 4, 2015 for $75,000. In 2019, this snare drum was purchased by Jim Irsay, who also owns Ringo’s first Ludwig oyster black pearl drum kit and the Beatles drop-T logo drumhead from the Ed Sullivan Show.

bottom of page