Hi! So How can I know if a Rockers is the best model, I mean made from 1985 when model was remade with maple shells?

What wood it was used on previous ones?

It doesn't say what wood is used on the others, just "select hardwoods" As far as telling when the Rockers were made the best. I would have to go for a combination of things: Black/White badge, no granitone on inside, classic lugs. But even then there might of been a few kits that sneaked out with any one of those things that could of been a lower quality shell or design.

Recently a friend of mine had purchased a used drum kit consisting of two different Ludwig Rocker series drums. I wanted to find out the history of these particular series of drums and how legit these options were during manufacturing, or were any of them altered in some way. The drum on the left is (I'm assuming) an older Rocker 12" tom, with it's slightly rounded 4 ply bearing edges. It accompanies a 13" tom with the same brilliant white cortex. The rest of the kit he purchased, consisted of Rocker Power-Plus toms, like the 8" pictured on the right. The (black and chrome drum badge) is a mystery and couldn't locate it in Rob Cook's "The Ludwig Book" or anywhere else. The wrap on all of his power toms are an off-white cortex, which I'm guessing would be the White Frost cortex, complete with the brownish Lud-cote interior finish. The class size tom on the left also has extra drill holes which could have had a different mount at some point, perhaps modular. That drum in particular also looks like it has an unfinished birch inner ply. A couple of the power toms have Taiwan stamped on the triple flanged hoops which I presume is the difference regarding options derived from the U.S. or Taiwan made drums. The serial numbers are consistent on the power toms which for example is, 6024320, if that gives you any indication as to when they were specifically manufactured. From what I'd researched on the vintage Rocker web page, and correct me if I'm wrong, the classic size Rocker with classic style lugs would date from around '96 and the Rocker Power-Plus tom would date somewhere between '86-'88. Thanks for any information you may have regarding these drums.

vk1drums D' Drummer

The 12 does not look like a Ludwig production. Looks more like an older stencil drum...

Attached are some pictures of a Rocker II kit I had. It was from the mid-80's and used Classic lugs! The shells were thin and resonated very well. The interiors had the brownish speckled "lud-coat". All bearing edges were checked on a trued slab of granite at a friends drum shop. Even he was very impressed with how true the edges were! Most times, it's not so much the wood used for the shells, but how true the edges are, and style of edges, that dictate how good a certain shell composition can sound.

Now this is the first time in over thirty years of playing, have I ever heard the word "stencil" to describe a knock-off or copy drum, or even knew they existed. Interesting, that the badge itself is a direct copy of the 70's Ludwig double-tom bracket sticker and probably used mini classic lugs to complete the look, I suppose.

There is at least some good news, that the remainder of his kit he bought are the genuine Rocker II drums, as it also included black/white badge 10" 12" 13", 14", 15" Power-Plus mounted toms and a 16" floor tom. The bass drum sizes are a 16" x 22" and a second 18" x 22". An MIJ Excel 5X14 snare (thrown-in). The only hardware included were an Atlas and two Rocker tom stands posted for $500. The seller also sold him all entry-level stands including two Pacific straight cymbal stands with an additional hidden boom cymbal stand, an 80's Yamaha hi-hat stand and Pearl snare stand, a Tama entry-level throne and a pro GMS single pedal, all for $685. Not too bad altogether. :)

The two stencil toms sound very good for being so-called copies. My curiosity got the best of me since those stencil toms alone looked suspect, to say the least in all of my years of exclusively playing Ludwig drums. My only question now is, what typical types of wood are used for the inner plies? Gum wood and/or other? Thank you for all and any other insightful information.

vk1drums

Hi,

You can find here my Rocker kit, 4 ply, unknow woods, a very great sound, not very far with my 1969 3 ply kit...

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=1339

Still have my first kit ,my folks bought me back in 84',,rocker 2',,love em,,,now my son is learning on them