Ludwig Educators, ever heard of them?

[jccabinets]

Okay, I know three guys beside's myself that own an Educator kit. These drums are pretty rare from my understanding. My question is this, how many of you have even heard about this line of drums? Ever seen one? Anyone have a kit or partial kit? Below is a picture of my kit. Soon I will have the snare drum to go with it. Please share any info that you might have on these very rare drums.

 

["poppies"]

http://bermudaschwartz.com/edu/

Best resource about these!

 

[Osahead2]

If you can... please take that nasty looking non-Ludwig bass drum head off...

 

[clubdate]

Those look like Mapex drums to me.

 

[jccabinets]

Okay, never mind.

 

[vintagedrummersweden]

Interesting!
Sounds like fine drums to me, and with some kind of collector's value too.
/L

 

[jccabinets]

Interesting!
Sounds like fine drums to me, and with some kind of collector's value too.
/L

They are very interesting, and sorry for the Mapex reso head, thats what was on them when I bought them, I took it off shortly after I got them.

Here are few more pics.

And yes, I have seen Bermudas web page. I found it when I first got my set, heck it was about the only info about these drums I found on the web. He is one off the three guys I know that have a set.

So, anyone else have one of these drums?

 

[mellotron]

Doesn't some of those drums have plastic lugs? If so, be careful with the snare drum. I don't know anything about them. Neat kit.

 

[thin shell]

Yep. Plastic lugs with a sheet metal bracket inside the lug. Very fragile.

 

[jccabinets]

Yep. Plastic lugs with a sheet metal bracket inside the lug. Very fragile.

This is correct! Unfortunately, my set is a display kit only, I am afraid to play it. If I had a bunch of steel lugs ( and they do have the same hole spacing) I would put them on and play them. Still, its a cool kit, not many of them around.

 

[mlayton]

ive got a 16 floor tom. working on the other pieces now. I did the same thing with it that I did with my vistalite combos as they both had plastic lugs. I put the plastic up for safe keeping and installed classic lugs to be able to play them. no mods needed as jeff mentioned. here is the sellers pic with the plastic and my pic with the bowtie classic lug. some of these drums are different layups as well. I know some were 4 ply and some were 3 ply.

mike

 

[jccabinets]

Ya Mike, wish I had a basket full of lugs, I would do the same.

So, so far still only three sets that we know about!

Cmon, someone step up and show us their Educators.

 

[anthonyfossaluzza]

what is the shell layup on your kit?

 

[mlayton]

Ya Mike, wish I had a basket full of lugs, I would do the same.

So, so far still only three sets that we know about!

Cmon, someone step up and show us their Educators.

well, the thing is that they are regular bowtie lugs. the ones used on pioneers,jazz fests and many others will work. even the acro lugs would work but have the open back for the bead. I put nickel ones on mine since bermudas kit had nickel classics when he got it.

mike

 

[jccabinets]

what is the shell layup on your kit?

The 12" is three ply with rings, the rest look to be 4 ply. All have maple interiors and i just assume poplar for the other plys. I guess it was common for Ludwig to mix shells like this in a kit because they were making this line of drums using leftover parts. It will be interesting to see what the snare drum is like, should have it in a few days.

 

[K.O.]

Wasn't there a plastic shelled Educator snare? I know there was a plastic shelled snare but I don't remember if they put the Educator badge on it or something else (I think it's in the 1980 catalog which I don't have handy). The shell was the same sort of shiny black ABS type plastic as the early Ludwig plastic drum case line. That might have been the "Combo" snare rather than the educator (might have been both).

The name suggests these drums were aimed at schools...and the construction (from whatever leftover parts they had laying about) suggests they were aimed at schools with tight music budgets.

 

[mlayton]

Wasn't there a plastic shelled Educator snare? I know there was a plastic shelled snare but I don't remember if they put the Educator badge on it or something else (I think it's in the 1980 catalog which I don't have handy). The shell was the same sort of shiny black ABS type plastic as the early Ludwig plastic drum case line. That might have been the "Combo" snare rather than the educator (might have been both).

The name suggests these drums were aimed at schools...and the construction (from whatever leftover parts they had laying about) suggests they were aimed at schools with tight music budgets.

the combo snare is the one youre thinking of ko. the badge looks just like the educator badge. it has the same plastic lugs as the educators.

mike

 

[anthonyfossaluzza]

How does it sounds?

 

[jccabinets]

How does it sounds?

Because of the plastic lugs I have never played them. When I first saw them on Craigs List I thought they were Standards due to the shape of the badge.
The seller was 200 miles away so I asked for more pics. With the better pics I saw the word educator on the badge. I posted a pic on the VDF to see what that was about. The Ludwig experts chimed in and had said I found a very rare kit and for 250.00 to get in the car and go get it. But before I left, the seller read my post on the VDF and decided to raise the price since they were so rare. He now wanted 500.00 for it. We settled on 350. and I was on my way. They came with some goodies too, a Rogers HH stand, a DW heavy duty snare stand and some nice pies. One is a 20" Italian ride ( cant remember the name) and the bottom hh was a paiste 602.
So anyway, I removed the heads and polished the wrap. Doing so I noticed some hair line cracks in some of the lugs. So the tension rods are just finger tight. If I ever find a good deal on some steel lugs I will switch them out like Mike did and play them. But for now they are just a show piece, but a mighty fine one at that.

 

[retrosonic]

I remember those Educator sets, because back in the late 70s, I saw one on display at one of the music stores on 48th st in NYC. The reason I remember it, is because I was always into vintage drums, and I remember how odd it was that they were using center lugs in 1979 or whenever it was.

Jcc: Hope you can replace the pukey plastic lugs with metal ones and play it!