StaggerLee
Silver Member
Ok, I love ludwig, and I love vintage gear. The only reason I don't have a full vintage kit anymore is because I don't have the room, had to sell due to money issues, too afraid to use it when not in a studio and got destroyed in a shed flooding. So now I keep mainly to snares, but then 2 years ago ludwig released the Ludwig Element SE Retro, and I was confused. I saw them at NAMM and the wording they gave to me was: "These only carry the price tag of the elements, they aren't at all connected. Ludwig classic lugs, high end finishes and hardware and rail consollettes, these are high end drums at the bottom price. We used wood that sounded vintage that also happened to cost less so we could afford to keep the price this low.". And then I saw a fair few with band for the next few years and each time they astounded me with their sound. Then the had the epic X over, another totally different drum with re-rings and fantastic sound and hybrid shells, that went down such a storm that a lot of industry pros ended up using them. And now more recently the club date SE, same shells as the Ludwig Element SE but different hardware (some would say worse as its not ludwig classic) and different finishes, but yet again went down a real storm to the fact Burn E Carlos and that drummer from the racconteurs now uses it to keep his actual club date for studio use. So my questions are these to people who can help me:
1) Why would ludwig only offer these as special editions and not for very long?
2) I understand VERY little are left, as they were advertised as high end drums with rock bottom prices, but do you see any outside of the studio anymore?
3) Why were they bundled in with low end drums (element) and upper-mid end drums (epic) when they were themselves advertised as higher?
Hoping Bermuda can help out mostly here, but any others are great.
Peace and goodwill, Oli
1) Why would ludwig only offer these as special editions and not for very long?
2) I understand VERY little are left, as they were advertised as high end drums with rock bottom prices, but do you see any outside of the studio anymore?
3) Why were they bundled in with low end drums (element) and upper-mid end drums (epic) when they were themselves advertised as higher?
Hoping Bermuda can help out mostly here, but any others are great.
Peace and goodwill, Oli