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TheFuzz
Member
Good morning all. New member here, so I thought I'd introduce myself and my Ludwig kit (apologies in advance, but I tend to write REALLY long intro posts, so grab some caffiene and have a seat, lol). I got these drums when I was 12 years old, which was 27 years ago now. Bought them from the drummer of the church that my family used to attend while I was growing up, who also happened to be a relative. Played it almost every day for ten years until I got married, then into storage it went...tough to fit a drumset into a tiny apartment with a new wife, let alone play it with neighbors, paper-thin walls and the first of three kiddos on the way. Fast forward 17 years later, and we finally just moved to a big enough place that I have my own office/music room. Naturally, my drums were one of the first things I dug out! I'm a prior service USAF machinist/welder, and over the last ten years I've gotten into machinery restorations and have been working on building up my own little modest home machine shop. Let me tell you...applying the same techniques/methods to clean up these old drums and do a little research on them has been eye-opening for me. I really had no idea what I owned, I just knew it was a really cool looking Ludwig drum kit. Teenagers (and young adults) are clueless. 
So, here's what I know - or rather, what I'm relatively confident about. It's a Ludwig 5-piece kit with black diamond pearl wrap (glued, no rivets) and six-ply shells. The mounted toms are 12" and 13", the floor tom is 16", and the bass drum is 22" and came with an original Speed King pedal. It came with what I thought was just a generic chrome snare, but as it turns out, I've owned an LM400 Supraphonic for 27 years without realizing it! All of the drums have the trapezoidal blue/olive Ludwig badges with pointed ends. The serial numbers on the toms and bass drum are all 195XXXX, while the Supra is a 168XXXX. Those numbers, the badge style, the six ply shells and the lack of wrap rivets put these right around 1977-78 production if my research thus far has been accurate. The snare also came with an older style flat bottomed stand with the script Ludwig logo cast into it. The cymbal stands that I got with it are single braced straight stands with the blue/olive Ludwig stickers on them, but they aren't flat bottomed like the snare stand. Not sure if that means the snare is older and was added to the kit later, or if the serial number gap between the snare and the rest of the kit (as well as the different style of stand) is normal for the period. Any Luddy experts, please feel free to chime in.
Anyway, I'd really like to know what the exact model of this kit is, and what it was supposed to come with from the factory...if it's even possible to glean that info from what I have to work with. It came with an older Tama hi-hat stand that works fine for my modest use, but I'd like to source a period-correct Ludwig hi-hat stand as well as a matching boom cymbal stand if possible, just to make the kit as original as possible (that's the restoration side of my brain talking). It had no front head when I bought it and was missing some hardware for the front hoop, so I bought what was available and within my budget at the time...most of which was wrong. The reso head on the bass drum would look great if it didn't have the mis-matched goofy gold trim ring on the port, but I've ordered the correct claws for the front bass head and all new reso/batter heads for the whole kit. The BDP wraps have shrunk and cracked pretty badly, but it's not bad enough to notice unless you're right up close so I'm leaving them as-is for now. The Premier snare inboard from the Supra was actually my first drum, purchased right before I bought the kit. It will also get cleaned up and get new heads eventually.
That concludes the novel, so if you're still reading, thank you! I'm no expert by any means, but I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone and sharing the knowledge I do have with all of you. Thanks again everyone.
So, here's what I know - or rather, what I'm relatively confident about. It's a Ludwig 5-piece kit with black diamond pearl wrap (glued, no rivets) and six-ply shells. The mounted toms are 12" and 13", the floor tom is 16", and the bass drum is 22" and came with an original Speed King pedal. It came with what I thought was just a generic chrome snare, but as it turns out, I've owned an LM400 Supraphonic for 27 years without realizing it! All of the drums have the trapezoidal blue/olive Ludwig badges with pointed ends. The serial numbers on the toms and bass drum are all 195XXXX, while the Supra is a 168XXXX. Those numbers, the badge style, the six ply shells and the lack of wrap rivets put these right around 1977-78 production if my research thus far has been accurate. The snare also came with an older style flat bottomed stand with the script Ludwig logo cast into it. The cymbal stands that I got with it are single braced straight stands with the blue/olive Ludwig stickers on them, but they aren't flat bottomed like the snare stand. Not sure if that means the snare is older and was added to the kit later, or if the serial number gap between the snare and the rest of the kit (as well as the different style of stand) is normal for the period. Any Luddy experts, please feel free to chime in.
Anyway, I'd really like to know what the exact model of this kit is, and what it was supposed to come with from the factory...if it's even possible to glean that info from what I have to work with. It came with an older Tama hi-hat stand that works fine for my modest use, but I'd like to source a period-correct Ludwig hi-hat stand as well as a matching boom cymbal stand if possible, just to make the kit as original as possible (that's the restoration side of my brain talking). It had no front head when I bought it and was missing some hardware for the front hoop, so I bought what was available and within my budget at the time...most of which was wrong. The reso head on the bass drum would look great if it didn't have the mis-matched goofy gold trim ring on the port, but I've ordered the correct claws for the front bass head and all new reso/batter heads for the whole kit. The BDP wraps have shrunk and cracked pretty badly, but it's not bad enough to notice unless you're right up close so I'm leaving them as-is for now. The Premier snare inboard from the Supra was actually my first drum, purchased right before I bought the kit. It will also get cleaned up and get new heads eventually.
That concludes the novel, so if you're still reading, thank you! I'm no expert by any means, but I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone and sharing the knowledge I do have with all of you. Thanks again everyone.
