Ludwig Shells. Vintage. Nice sizes!

[pdp 9091]

Can I sense a winter project comming up?

I found some vintage Ludwig Shells (no hardware at all) in the 24" kick, 13" tom, 14" tom, and 16" floor tom specs. They are blue and olive badged and are in a white wrap. (picture below.). The price going for them are $225 USD. Should I pick them up and put money into buying hardware for them (lugs, tension rods, rims, spurs, legs, heads, etc..) and stripping the wrap off and sanding them down and putting a nice natural maple finish on them?

As most of you all probably know, ive been looking to get larger drums for a while now. Is this a good project idea for the next months? If so it will be my second kit next to my Yamaha Stage Custom. If i were to do this I would only build the kick, 14" tom and the 16" tom and just leave the 13" tom aside for now.

Those look like the 6 ply shells, I prefer the the 3 ply, but I would buy them. The kit I had sounded great and the drums were loud.

[harryconway]

If you're good at sourcing out parts, go for it. My 26, 15, 16, 18 Ludwigs are 6 ply shells. Your drums will rock, no doubt.

[Skitch]

These are excellent drums - I had a "Big Beat Outfit" made of this ply configuration! I would go ahead and plan on making all of the drums your project, if you are going to do it, unless you plan on selling the 13". htis way you will go thru all of the hassels one time. For the money invested you could end up having a top notch drumkit! Keep us posted on your progress!


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com


http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=drummermikemccraw

Since I just purchased replacement parts for my Ludwigs, I can give you approximate costs (each item) -

Tom tension rods - $1.25 w/ washers
Bass drum t-handle - $8.50
Bass drum rim claws - $3.50
Tom & bass drum lugs - $11.00
Tom rims - $15-$17
Tom rod mounts - $15
Bass drum hoops - $70
Bass drum spurs - $22
Floor tom legs - $13 each
Bass drum tom mount - $70
Bass drum tom plate - $25

If you're putting the internal mufflers back into the toms, they're like $20 each. I hucked mine.

I wasn't happy with the fit of the new bass drum spurs. The actual mounts don't line up well with the holes in the bass drum. It takes a lot of effort to get one side in.

I couldn't get the original bass drum tom mount because I simply couldn't find a new one. I replaced the original mount with a Rocker series mount. I actually like it better because it is easier to position the drums.

I'd think twice before removing the wrap. You could end up with some awful looking wood. I'd also test to make sure the new lugs with tighten up fully. You might find yourself adding extra washers inside the shell.

The other thing is that I couldn't get all of the parts from the same shop. Some was special order and it was an in-stock item at another dealer.

Doing the math -

$50 - tension rods
$170 - bass rods
$70 - bass claws
$550 - lugs

This is getting *expensive*.

[Salicete]

Nice shells, I would go for it; it would be a fun project, and make playing them all the more rewarding, but why not go ahead and do all of them while you are at it?

It never hurts to have a spare drum around when you need a new sound on your kit.

[jollymosher]

It is gonna cost a lot of money! but hey, i think it is totally gonna be worth every penny. The vintage Ludwigs are off the hook man!

[Drummer95]

It will cost a lot of money if you buy all of the hardware new. However, I am sure you can find Ludwig lugs on Ebay, and that would save you a considerable amount of cash.

[pdp 9091]

I went on drummaker.com and totaled up and estimate. It came to $416 usd. Now since I already have my stage custom, should I consider selling the stage custom to fund money into the Ludwig or should I just build the ludwig as a second kit?

So, does this mean you're NOT putting the original Ludwig hardware back on the drums? You don't feel this defeats the purpose of having a "vintage" set? (I wouldn't consider a late 70's era Ludwig set "vintage", but that's me.) If you can't afford new, I'd scour eBay. Lots of used Ludwig parts.

One thing to be careful of with the used Ludwig stuff - the hardware that attaches the lugs to the shell is very cheap. If you over-tighten them you'll snap the heads off.

Keep the Yamahas. You might find that after all this effort that you don't like the sound of the Ludwigs and want to sell them.

Originally Posted by pdp 9091

I went on drummaker.com and totaled up and estimate. It came to $416 usd. Now since I already have my stage custom, should I consider selling the stage custom to fund money into the Ludwig or should I just build the ludwig as a second kit?

[harryconway]

Keep your Yamaha's. Keep your Ludwig project just that, a project. Ludwig is a good place to start, if you wanna get into Re-store/re-furbish, because there are so many out there. Get yourself on eBay, go to every drum shop you can. Swap meets and yard sales. I wound up having 3 and 6 ply 16" and 18" Ludwig floor toms when I started my project. I liked the 6 ply sound better. So I stripped all the hardware off the 3 ply shells and sold just the shells for more than I paid for the complete drums. Buy a cheap Ludwig drum with a crack in it because it has hardware. I'd keep the hardware stock. To some cats (mlehnertz mentions this), your kit isn't vintage. But to others, it is. It's over 25 years old, which is a popular measure of time for an item to be called vintage.

I better start taking better care of my vintage drums! My 13" tom is missing the batter head and has a volleyball sitting in it. The other four pieces are sitting in the garage and haven't seen daylight in 2 years.

[harryconway]

Originally Posted by mlehnertz

I better start taking better care of my vintage drums!

Yes. Or no. Depends on what they are. Honestly, the old 3 ply Ludwigs aren't in and of themselves "all that great". And Ludwig was producing 150 kits a day. People started treating them like VW beetles. Mounting Rogers hardware to them. Drilling extra holes. Homedone paint and wrap jobs. Will they every be worth what a round badge Gretsch kit is. Hardly, because both kits are aging together. My vistalites are a good example. Bought new 1980. Then bought a whole second double bass kit (clear vista's) in 1992 for $500. When I sold everything off, I doubled and tripled my money. So, not so bad for a dumb drummer.

I know my particular set (Ludwig 6-ply maple) will never fetch anything despite being over 25 years. It's too common, too played and too repaired. I gigged with that set, almost every weekend, for the better part of 10 years. I certainly didn't abuse it, but hardware did fail. All of the Hercules stands lost a knob. Hi hat stand broke. Speed King pedal broke. Bass drum tom mount broke. Spurs mount broke. I took the mufflers out because they buzzed. I replaced all those parts with better parts to make the set more functional and less original.

Anyway, I'd still be putting original Ludwig lugs and mounts back on the shells, but I'd probably think about aftermarket hoops/rims and tension rods.

[pdp 9091]

They already sold on ebay so i wont be able to pick these up. I think I might just save for a while (with the help or christmas money) and try to shoot for a Ludwig Maple Classic in 26", 14" and 16" configuration. I already have the supra snare so that will save me a consideral amount of money.

Were you purchasing these shells as a project or as a second set of drums? If it was the latter, I'd have to believe you can find a set of 70s Ludwig big beats for less money than you were willing to invest on fixing those shells.

I found a completed auction. 1974 big beat, 5 pc, $600. Looks like it was in great condition.