Mid 70’s Ludwigs

[kopterguy]

Picked these up yesterday on a trip to D.C. I’m going to try to rewrap them and restore them. I don’t know much about Ludwigs, and have never wrapped a drum, so hopefully these are good to restore and play. As best as I can tell, they are 3 ply with the granitone interiors and the additional rings.

 

[jccabinets]

Looks like a great project, what is the snare?

 

[jptrickster]

Picking up the Ludwig kit in a private jet now that’s the good life!

 

[kopterguy]

Picking up the Ludwig kit in a private jet now that’s the good life!

That’s my day job

 

[kopterguy]

it has “pulse” brand sticker on it. Sounds good

 

[levelpebble]

That’s my day job

Very good to know - I bet you'd love to do deliveries for us from the DMV airports!

 

[Tommy D]

Nice kit, but I have a general question about Ludwig drums... or maybe moreso about their owners. Why does every used Ludwig blue/olive badge kit have bashed and dinged up badges? Every one is scratched to hell, the corners are clipped off, etc. It like the owners intentionally attack the badges with screw drivers.

I see it a lot with old keystone badges too. Half the badge is missing. How does something like that happen? It makes no sense to me.

 

[kopterguy]

Nice kit, but I have a general question about Ludwig drums... or maybe moreso about their owners. Why does every used Ludwig blue/olive badge kit have bashed and dinged up badges? Every one is scratched to hell, the corners are clipped off, etc. It like the owners intentionally attack the badges with screw drivers.

I see it a lot with old keystone badges too. Half the badge is missing. How does something like that happen? It makes no sense to me.

I agree, I guess over 45 years its going to happen

 

[jptrickster]

Nice kit, but I have a general question about Ludwig drums... or maybe moreso about their owners. Why does every used Ludwig blue/olive badge kit have bashed and dinged up badges? Every one is scratched to hell, the corners are clipped off, etc. It like the owners intentionally attack the badges with screw drivers.

I see it a lot with old keystone badges too. Half the badge is missing. How does something like that happen? It makes no sense to me.

Rumor has it that’s why they switched to round edge b/o badge, less likely to get snagged and banged up. And who had cases in the 70’s used to wrap mine in blankets lol

 

[K.O.]

Those look to be Silver Silk which is a fairly uncommon color. I'm not sure I'd do a rewrap if the original wrap can be salvaged. Generally it will cost around $400 bucks to do a quality rewrap (if you do it yourself) and the drums will probably be worth $400 less than when you started when you're done.

That would be a nice neutral color (like WMP or Silver Sparkle) under colored stage lights.

If the wrap is truly toast then that's another matter.

All the dinged up badges have always been a mystery to me as well. Then again when I got my first good set in 1975 the first thing I did was order the matching set of Ludwig fiber cases so mine always traveled well protected. But I've seen plenty of drum sets being hauled around partially set up in the back of pickup trucks or station wagons. Funny how you almost never see guitar players casually stuffing their caseless axe into a car trunk or wherever.

I suspect that, besides general wear and tear from unprotected transport, a lot is also due to "vandalism" ( for lack of a better word) especially drums that belonged to younger drummers or schools where kids had access. Some kids tried to pull badges off drums at my school because they thought they would make a cool trophy and I even knew one guy who pried and pulled the badges off his own drums with pliers because he thought they looked "tacky".

Kids shouldn't be allowed around nice things....I know, I'm now a grumpy old man.

 

[p83]

Nice kit, but I have a general question about Ludwig drums... or maybe moreso about their owners. Why does every used Ludwig blue/olive badge kit have bashed and dinged up badges? Every one is scratched to hell, the corners are clipped off, etc. It like the owners intentionally attack the badges with screw drivers.

I see it a lot with old keystone badges too. Half the badge is missing. How does something like that happen? It makes no sense to me.

2 of my favorite snares. i traded a pointy b/o 402 for the broken keystone one to match my pre-serial cob.

 

[JazzDrumGuy]

I saw a Ludwig Blue/Olive stainless steel 13 16 22 with a 15 this weekend and it was in perfect condition. The badges were flat which was shocking (and were not rounded corners!) and the Chrome was also fantastic. Interesting.......

 

[feelyat]

Nice kit, but I have a general question about Ludwig drums... or maybe moreso about their owners. Why does every used Ludwig blue/olive badge kit have bashed and dinged up badges? Every one is scratched to hell, the corners are clipped off, etc. It like the owners intentionally attack the badges with screw drivers.

I see it a lot with old keystone badges too. Half the badge is missing. How does something like that happen? It makes no sense to me.

I wonder if it was a manufacturing flaw with certain eras of badges. On the Luddies that I used to own, the worst part of the badges (by far) were the plain metal parts. The painted bits were pristine. This is for a drum that I had for 35+ years.

 

[kopterguy]

The old wraps came off easily, except the floor tom. I had to heat gun it. It also had a lot of glue residue that took a while to remove. I finally found a product that worked, it just took several applications and lots of rubbing. Waiting on the wraps to come in and get them finished.

 

[el_37]

I was hoping to post before you removed that wrap- that is a pretty rare color.

Any chance the wrap came off intact?

 

[kopterguy]

I was hoping to post before you removed that wrap- that is a pretty rare color.

Any chance the wrap came off intact?

They came off very easily except the floor tom. I also have the bass drum strips, but they are silver or gold sparkle, depending on the light. The floor tom wrap may be usable, but I wouldn’t count on it. If anyone is interested, I’ll take $125 plus actual shipping, or trade for a ’70s vintage arched tom mount in good shape.

 

[kopterguy]

Also, the sizes are 22”, 12”, 13” and 16”.

 

[kopterguy]

I installed the wraps from Jammin Sam. What a great guy to do business with. They fit perfectly and went on easy.

 

[JDA]

Aug 1- Aug 11 has to be quickest rewrap done in history ; )

What did you do with the airhole badges wrap right over or? they look Great

Ok I see the badge(s) how did/ what did that involve/

 

[JDA]

heck of a transformation