Need help identifying my drums (Ludwig? Rogers?)

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Dr_Brewer

Junior Member
Hey, fellow drummers!

I've been reading the forum for several years before realising that it would be great to get some thoughts from you guys on what my drums could be. So here is a little story behind the kit in question.

I live in Russia. A couple of years ago I finally decided to order a kit through one of the Ukrainian dealers, who became pretty well-known for selling some serious drums, even to professionals. I wanted something like a vintage Ludwig kit, but most offerings were beyond what I could afford at that moment.

Finally we came across this kit on Craiglist that some guy was selling somewhere around Chicago I think. It looked gorgeos on photos, but lacked information on the actual model. Eventually I became too curious (and risky) and decided to buy it no matter what. So...

The kit appeared to be the real Frankenstein. It seems that at least two (maybe three) sets of drums had some of their parts taken away to form this kit.

Franky:
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Every drum has a wrapped silver sparkle finish and is fitted with Ludwig classic lugs, as well as regular flanged hoops. Rack toms featured Pearl Opti-Mounts. There are no badges outside the shells or any stickers/stamps inside them. I guess it is only possible to identify them judging by the interior and sizes.

I've found three types of interiors on this kit. Lets mark them as A, B and B/C (I'll explain the B/C thing later). Here are the full specs:

1A 14x5 snare drum (8 lugs, basic Ludwig throw-off, basic butt-plate that also says "Ludwig", both look exactly like these)
2A 12x8 rack tom (6 lugs)
3A 13x9 rack tom (6 lugs)
4B 15x14 floor tom (8 lugs)
5B 16x14 floor tom (8 lugs)
6B/C 24x14 bass drum (10 lugs, space for tom mount was filled)

Here's interior A:
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Bearing edge close-up:
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Interior B:
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Bearing edge close-up, this actual one had to be re-cut:
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Interior B/C:
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Filled tom-mount hole close-up:
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The B/C interior could be either a B with all the gray coating stripped down (both B and B/C have reinforcement hoops whereas A drums have none), or a real C.

A drums have more of a brownish gray coating that looks like one on the Ludwig Rocker ll from the 80s.
The B and B/C interiors are not so evident to me. Still, I could be wrong even with those rack toms and the snare!

The kit sounds great by the way and I won't be dissapointed even if those old shells turn out to be some stuff for the begginners :) Any help is highly appreciated!
 
I could have sworn I saw this same exact thread a while ago with quite a few responses.

Perhaps it was moved to the correct forum at some point and the responses got bungled in the process.
 
Well, I've been dropping by the forum every now and then...really hope there actually were some answers that got bungled somehow - at least that would mean that my case is not a completely hopeless one :-D
 
wildbill said:
I saw this thread earlier, but don't have anything to add to what you already know.
Click to expand...

Thanks anyway!

2 all

Maybe I can give you guys some other clues that I was too simple minded to mention?

E.g. the crafstman who recut the bearing edge on one of the floor toms told me that one of the plies was almost crumbling while he was doing his thing...which made him think that some sort of particle board was involved in the shell composition
 
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The shells with granitone interior on them appear to be Ludwig Rockers, from the 80s. Those are 6 ply drums.
The shell with natural finish (bass drum?) is 3 ply maple with re-rings (thicker ring on edge) and thus must be pre 1976 if they are Ludwig.
Although other drum makers had 'granitone' painted interiors (like Rogers, some Tama) but their lugs differ and screw distances on the lugs would not be the same as in Ludwig.

I think you have all Ludwigs, a pre 1976 bass drum and Rocker toms.
some other real experts will weigh in here soon.
Hope it sounds good.
 
opentune said:
The shells with granitone interior on them appear to be Ludwig Rockers, from the 80s. Those are 6 ply drums.
The shell with natural finish (bass drum?) is 3 ply maple with re-rings (thicker ring on edge) and thus must be pre 1976 if they are Ludwig.
Although other drum makers had 'granitone' painted interiors (like Rogers, some Tama) but their lugs differ and screw distances on the lugs would not be the same as in Ludwig.

I think you have all Ludwigs, a pre 1976 bass drum and Rocker toms.
some other real experts will weigh in here soon.
Hope it sounds good.
Click to expand...

That was really helpful, thank you, Louis!

Yes, they do sound good! They have this dense kind of character that i'm really diggin'



And sorry if I'm asking the same question over and over again, but were
those 'american wood veneers' used in Rocker ll's actually poplar and birch?
 
Not sure what are in the 5 or 6 ply drums (Rockers). Maple and poplar, but not sure of the number of each, in the Rockers.
The drum(s) you show that are natural 3 ply (no coating) are maple-poplar-maple. Some would say that is the classic Ludwig sound, pre 1976.

you might want to read here, they have catalogues:

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/ludwig.html
 
opentune said:
Not sure what are in the 5 or 6 ply drums (Rockers). Maple and poplar, but not sure of the number of each, in the Rockers.
The drum(s) you show that are natural 3 ply (no coating) are maple-poplar-maple. Some would say that is the classic Ludwig sound, pre 1976.

you might want to read here, they have catalogues:

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/ludwig.html
Click to expand...

Thanks again!

Yeah, I remember diving into all those old catalogue pages...actually, the shell interior on those Combo sets really remind me of my floor toms.
 
I was pretty sure that looked like Rocker, but didn't want to say until someone more knowledgeable chimed in.

Here's a pic of the coating inside a Rocker snare:

.
 
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