Ludwig Black Beauty

Bkbeat

New Member
Hello,
I am playing a 5x14 black beauty Brass. I have played around between pure sound wires and stock. I play heads pretty tight. Currently remo ambassador and emperor resonant.
Curious if anyone else playing black beauty’s have a different head setup or wires that they like. I definitely am happy with my sound now, but every year or so I like to try a little different setup to see if I like it better. Thoughts?
 
My favorite snare side head for all drums is a Remo no collar clear Ambassador. The no collar model gives you a lot of room to tune the head before it stretches out to the point it starts running into either the snare butt or the lugs, which is a bit of a problem on Ludwig's 5" deep snares especially.
 
I think Canopus vintage snare wires sound great on my black beauty as well as my Sonor steel wires.

As for heads, yea I agree that 5 mil is too thick I think ambassador snare side is great. I’ve tried dozens of heads on my black beauty and ultimately landed on the Evans reverse power center. It’s single ply with a reverse power patch in the middle.
 
Hello,
I am playing a 5x14 black beauty Brass. I definitely am happy with my sound now, but every year or so I like to try a little different setup to see if I like it better. Thoughts?

I too have a 5" X 14" Black Beauty snare (as well as an 8" X 14" Black beauty). For the modern Ludwig Black Beauty sound stick with stock Ludwig heads and snare wires (or the cheap Gibraltar plated 20-strand snare wires). That combination just plain works if you want that classic Black Beauty sound.

That being said I've been experimenting with different batter heads and I typically use an Aquarian Texture Coated or an Aquarian Coated Studio X batter head with the stock Ludwig reso head or an Aquarian Classic Clear reso.

After trying a number of snare wires I'm most impressed with the Canopus Vintage Nickel Plated 20-strand wires for overall sonic quality on the Black Beauty. I also like the PureSound 12-strand Concert Snares for more articulation, more shell tone and more "bark." The 12-strand Puresound Concert wires make it sound like a different drum (think older vintage Black Beauties); some may like this, others likely won't. I have a stash of older PureSound snare wires on hand, but I've heard since the company was sold the quality of their snare wires is hit and miss these days. I'll let others address that issue.

I also use Ludwig orange snare cord pretty much on all of my snare drums. I prefer it over any other snare cord.

My 2 cents is replace your Emperor resonant head with a 3 mil Remo Ambassador reso head or an Aquarian Classic Clear 3-mil resonant head and experiment with different batter heads and snares until you get the sound that you want.
 
When it comes to Ludwig metal drums, I also use the Puresound 12 strand wires. I’ve tried the Canopus 16 strand dry wires and I didn’t care for them at all. I agree with Vintage Old School about sticking with the stock Ludwig snare wires on the new Black Beauties. They’re fine. On my pre serial Ludwig COB and pre serial LM400, both 14x5, the 12 strand wires are excellent. I also have them installed on my 90’s Ludwig hammered bronze, and that snare sounds incredible.
 
Concur with Joe on the hammered bronze. Just put a set of Ludwig 12 stranders on my ‘82 6.5 HB. Oh yeah... that’s the good stuff right there. I’m sold on the 12 strand for my Ludwig snares.
 
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I too have a 5" X 14" Black Beauty snare (as well as an 8" X 14" Black beauty). For the modern Ludwig Black Beauty sound stick with stock Ludwig heads and snare wires (or the cheap Gibraltar plated 20-strand snare wires). That combination just plain works if you want that classic Black Beauty sound.

That being said I've been experimenting with different batter heads and I typically use an Aquarian Texture Coated or an Aquarian Coated Studio X batter head with the stock Ludwig reso head or an Aquarian Classic Clear reso.

After trying a number of snare wires I'm most impressed with the Canopus Vintage Nickel Plated 20-strand wires for overall sonic quality on the Black Beauty. I also like the PureSound 12-strand Concert Snares for more articulation, more shell tone and more "bark." The 12-strand Puresound Concert wires make it sound like a different drum (think older vintage Black Beauties); some may like this, others likely won't. I have a stash of older PureSound snare wires on hand, but I've heard since the company was sold the quality of their snare wires is hit and miss these days. I'll let others address that issue.

I also use Ludwig orange snare cord pretty much on all of my snare drums. I prefer it over any other snare cord.

My 2 cents is replace your Emperor resonant head with a 3 mil Remo Ambassador reso head or an Aquarian Classic Clear 3-mil resonant head and experiment with different batter heads and snares until you get the sound that you want.
I found my ambassador snare side, retuned and switched from the stock snares back to the pure sound blasters I had. I am liking the sound so far. We shall see how it sounds on recording.. The pure sounds have a little more crack and a little less ring, or just enough. Thanks for the tips
 
Ambassador batter, Ambassador snare side, and Puresound wires on mine. I don't remember how many strands, maybe 20? Sounds great to me. I do find though that mine doesn't like being tuned very high, it sounds better at middle tunings.
 
Just bought one today :) The bloke I got it from is very well versed in BB's. It has the standard Ludwig Snare Side with Canopus Vintage Wires. The batter is a Coated Vintage Ambassador. Sounds simply wonderful :)
 
My entire drumming life the black beauty was a drum I had to have someday. Well?..i got a 6.5x14 70's unetched B.B. It was a moment I'll never forget. Put it on the stand and was like..just a second..maybe it's the tuning..played and tuned..played and tuned. Big discovery..dont like brass drums..since that day I've owned 3 more brass drums. I'm a gluten for punishment. To this day I constantly read drummers praising them..not me..NO brass drums..ever again.
 
My entire drumming life the black beauty was a drum I had to have someday. Well?..i got a 6.5x14 70's unetched B.B. It was a moment I'll never forget. Put it on the stand and was like..just a second..maybe it's the tuning..played and tuned..played and tuned. Big discovery..dont like brass drums..since that day I've owned 3 more brass drums. I'm a gluten for punishment. To this day I constantly read drummers praising them..not me..NO brass drums..ever again.
Its interesting - I was the same, had a Recoding Custom Brass 6.5 x 14 , it came with excellent reviews, but it didn't gel with me. Bought a 6.5 x 14 BB a couple of years later because of their reputation and always I wanted to have one. Same thing, tried all the heads and tunings but it was the same. No more Brass drums for me either. I always felt a bit odd when I mentioned this to other drummers because of their iconic status. Each to their own I guess.
 
Went round and round with every wire on planet Earth for my 14 x 6.5 Black Beauty. I hardly ever play brass snares anymore because I prefer the sound of maple, but there is always someone who wants it in the mix.

So I finally trusted my instincts and installed the latest high carbon steel 'snappy snare wires' I keep for the Starclassic Maple snare drums (and an S.L.P. snare) on the BB and WOW.

Just trust me on this folks, it made the BB sound like what it was always supposed to sound like.

My .02 cents.
 
12 strand wires are my secret weapon on my ‘79 6.5 BB. Sensitive but allows more of the shell tone into the overall sound. Added benefit is significantly less sympathetic buzz from the toms.
Did you buy the 12 strand wires (what brand) or mod a set of wires yourself?

I like 12 strand if it's a high tuning. I settled on 16 strand Canopus wires. Sounds good tight or loose. They sound different than other wires IMO.
 
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