Quick Ludwig Rockers Question

rustyfingers

rustyfingers

Senior Member
Are these the USA made rockers or over seas? There isn't a pic of the badge and the guy at the store said they were boxed up.

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look like 80s top line after Rings era
just the heads say rockers
odd to have those spurs on the bass
yet the 12 has same size lug as the 13
(or is that a 13 & 14 small toms)
so there's some mix going on but
don't seem to be lower line rockers
look like late 70s USa Classics with a lower clubdate series spur
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I agree with the SL-series. I bought a kit just like those In the early 80s. Made in USA 4 ply popular with classic lugs, black & white badge and short straight bass drum legs. I thought they were great drums. But I got the itch for the power toms and sold them.
 
Standard begat S/L begat Rocker begat Rocker II.
S/L and early Rocker use Maple/Poplar shell. 6 plies bass and snare, 4 ply toms (would become the Super Classic shell in '88).
Standard and Rocker II is.....wood with Zolocoat interior.
I agree, those look like early 80's Standard drums.
 
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I thought all of the Standards had that granitone interiors, and most of the Standards I've see have been 3 ply.

In any case, this would be a solid kit IMO. The traditional depths are a definite bonus.
 
PorkPieGuy said:
I thought all of the Standards had that granitone interiors, and most of the Standards I've see have been 3 ply.
Click to expand...
Ludwig went to the 6 ply shell in 76, so that 3 ply granitone shell you are referring to went out of production. I've heard (though you can't always believe everything you hear) that some mixed shell (3 and 6 ply shell) kits were sent out during the transition period. Since it cost less to make the 6 ply shell vs the 3 ply shell ...... and the Standard was a budget kit ..... I suspect the Standard line (with 3 ply granitone shell and standard hardware) ended in 76. Very little info. appears online. As far as the S/L line ..... seems only the 82 catalog scan is easily found. But that line might have been birth in 76/77.
 
I think the S/L series probably has a pretty wide variety in build quality both because it was Ludwig's low-end line, but also in the early 80s Ludwig was throwing together drumsets with whatever they had left in Chicago to avoid having to move much to the upcoming Monroe factory.

I have an S/L 12x8" tom that has a black and white badge, had small Classic lugs, and a shell with a Granitone painted interior and a poplar exterior. Because of the paint on the bearing edge it's a little hard to tell what else is going on in the shell but it is thin and quite lightweight. Poplar on the outside is strange to me, which could have been a mistake or how they made them in Chicago but every other (made in Monroe) Rocker and Rocker II shell I've seen has a maple exterior ply.
 
PorkPieGuy said:
I thought all of the Standards had that granitone interiors, and most of the Standards I've see have been 3 ply.

In any case, this would be a solid kit IMO. The traditional depths are a definite bonus.
Click to expand...
Go back to the scan from the '82 flyer. It says right there - 6 ply bass, 4 ply snare and toms. Sometimes we don't see all the plies when we're scrutinizing the edges.
 
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