A few things bother me about this drum.....the wrap seam is not under a lug or the strainer....this is something that Ludwig always seemed to do, the diamond shapes seem to be glued on top of the wrap, if it was original they would be inset as part of the wrap. The badge is BEHIND the strainer throwoff! I've never seen ludwig do that! And finally the white painted interior, it shoudl be natural finish. If it was restored, it was restored by someone who didn't know a thing about ludwigs.....seems more like a cobble up job to me.....As a player piece, its worth about $300 tops. As a collector piece....worth zip as its been messed with too much. Any collector value it had went out the window the minute somebody tried to "restore" it.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]It is very strange, and I agree with LD's observations. the seam location doesn't bug me, since that was sort of a weird norm. The badge/throwoff issue is really, really BIZARRE...BUT, IF there are NO extra holes, it can be assumed that it was factory...albeit weird factory.

White-painted interior and if in fact the diamonds are surface-applied....zing...no way $750. makes one wonder why the interior was painted white...to hide something ?

Th removal of the diamonds also no big deal to me. So, I think that replacing the rods w/ the originals, removing the diamonds, and somehow removing all of the white interior paint would be the renovation order for this one.

A LD says, though...you couldn't really then claim it as original factory. But you could claim it as correctly restored, at least.

But no way $750...there is nothing remotely reality-based about that price.[/COLOR]

I bet the white paint is hiding filled holes on this one.......something not kosher about this one....

[COLOR="DarkRed"]...which might explain the badge behind the throwoff...

....maybe...hard to say....

...but there don't seem to be extra holes in the wrap....[/COLOR]

Could be the middle wrap from an old 16 floor tom. That would explain the lack of holes. Just a thought.

White interior is correct for that era, although the white paint does look too new for a 75 yr. old shell...there should be a date stamp also...can't really tell but if the Imperial lugs are tapped (no inserts) then it's an Anniversdary drum (1935-36)...I've seen another full dress L&L Standard with the badge under a lug (more room to show off the full dress in every panel) so that's probably correct...the full dress diamond looks like it's missing some parts, usually the full dress was 2 or 3 color combinations such as red/green or red/green/gold sparkle or some combination like that and it was on top of the wrap (see attached, it's a Leedy but you get the idea)...750.00 is all the money on this one given the suspect interior and missing parts to the Full Dress...500.00 feels better...Be sure to get those original tension rods back! Hope this helps.

Mike Curotto

Thanks for the education, Mike. I have not yet seen the drum in person, but have spoken to the owner again. He claims that I misunderstood him regarding the restoration, and that he only had it LOOKED at by a drum historian. Which doesn't explain the replacement tension rods, but hopefully we'll get to the bottom of that story eventually. He claims that it was his fathers, and that its been in storage since the 1940s. He looked for a date stamp when I asked him about it, and claims that it is stamped '36. If that is the case, do you care to speculate on the value? The guy has indicated that he's willing to negotiate. Thanks again, one and all.

Sorry, but most of this is wrong...white interior is correct...although that may have been redone. Diamonds were not inserts as stated here, but were applied on top of the wrap like this one. Also, the throw off over the badge is correct here too. On this era of full dress drums, they sometimes put the throw there OR left off the badge completely and just put it on the matching bass drum (as they usually were sold as a two piece set). Also, I've seen a few full dress drums of this era with just the single, one color diamonds...I think they did that when they switched to the imperial lugs....so, if you like the drum it certainly appears pretty original and is well worth the $750 if you want to keep it. As a re-sale, you may want to go lower...

Here's another slightly earlier model in not nearly as nice shape with the tacked on single diamonds. (I think this one's a bit overpriced, but it's still pretty cool.

http://cgi.ebay.com/*Ludwig-Snare-Drum-14%22-Full-Dress-30s-Vintage-Blue-Duco_W0QQitemZ150325927178QQcmdZViewItem

[COLOR="Purple"]Dang...if the date stamp is still visible atop the paint, then it's the original paint. Guy may be telling the truth....[/COLOR]