Ludwig Rockers

That sucks.

I've restored three Rocker kits, and bought a lot of lugs on eBay to replace broken ones that were either broken when I got the drum or broke in the disassembly process.

The only solution I've found is being really careful screwing/unscrewing and adding a couple extra washers under the screws to reduce how much torque it takes to get the screw fully tight. Even with that plan I've still broken several lugs; they're just really hit or miss on sturdy-ness.

Actually, the other solution is to replace the tom lugs with large classic lugs. I did that on one kit and not stressing out when reattaching the lugs was a nice benefit.
 
no talent said:
that drum is an even bigger score then! thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

I bought a set around 83, They had the classic lugs, and the 4 ply shells with ludcoat , but the kick spurs were the disappearing type from the 60's. Not the curved ones in the pic. They had the same black and white badges. They were great sounding drums, but they weren't extra deep. So I sold them. Now I'm playing shallow drums again. I should have kept them.
 
Around 1982 Ludwig did a second generation of the Standard line,Catalogue shows sixties type spurs.

I have an S/L series kit,on that series the kicks were 6 ply,toms 4 ply.

I have seen postings and pics on the S/L kits,and about half of them or more were a little different from the catalogue'd kits
 
I'm not sure if the kicks were 4 ply or 6. I'm positive the specs I looked up back then said the drums were 4 ply poplar. It's quite possible the kicks could have been 6 plies. That's a pretty common thing for the toms and kick to be a different thickness. The snare was the some construction covered in a chrome wrap. I used an acrolite instead.
 
It should come as no surprise that Ludwig did a lot of weird things that don't fit into what we see in catalogs. With these being their low-end line they seemed to just slap together just about anything that would work. Even in the catalogs it seemed a little random, and what is actually out there is even further from that. I think the change in ownership, and starting up/ shifting production to Monroe caused some of that weirdness.

As for construction, both my 22" and 24" rocker basses seem to be 4-ply, with three thin maple and one thick poplar ply.
 
Ludwig rockers were looked at as cheap quality back then. I recently put together my own rocker set in black. The rocker drums have a definite punch. I've played ludwigs 70's- 90's. then for some reason went to gretch. Nothing against gretch, but the rockers sound matches my style . That green sparkle is killer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top