I have the same year model as your kit, are you sure the bass drum is the year model you stated?

Beautiful drum kit!

Awesome kit:-) love it!!!!Cool1

I determined the year based on the badges and the info I found here in this forum. These drums were purchased from an estate sale in PA been in someones basement for the last 30+ yrs.

Bass drum 14x24 simply has a consollette for the tom and clamp on legs. No other holes. I am pretty confident these drums are all of the same set. Indcluding the Snare (you can see it in the backround.

I'd really like to know the exact years. What is the difference with your bass drum?

My bass drum is a 14x26" it came with the Ray Mckinley 6 1/2x14" snare drum the rim claws are the older style than your kit has that was why I asked the question. I of course dated my kit by the badges as well. you kit is an absolute beauty,, WFL'S are some of my all time fav drums.

Here are a couple pics of the rim claws and the badge on my bass drum. You have probably seen this but here is a link to the WFL badges. http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/ludwig_badges.html

Yeah your claws are rounder at the base rather than pointy ....hmmm intersting.

the badges are the same..

maybe mine is 1950-52...got me thinking.

I would say the guess on this kit for the year is pretty correct. The pattern on the WMP on this kit is the same style that WFL used on Zephyr lug sets from the 30's and 40's. Classic lugs and speed king upgrade was done in 1946-47 and some of the earliest WFL classic lug sets I have seen used small classic lugs on the 9x13's. Those claws also look 40's WFL claws that were used during the zephyr lug period. I know they never wasted anything so at some point everything was used up.

The WMP pattern changed in the late 40's to the more straight lined look and the new style WFL claw then had WFL written right on them. WFL also did not come out with legs mounted in the bass drum until the early 50's. Your set looks like a great example of a period correct late 40's set.

I had a 24,13,16 6.5x14 snare in wmp myself and I sold it a number of years ago. Actually I think Tommy P has it now and it was a beauty. Mine had silver badges, wfl stamped claws and the 50's style WMP. Judging by my snare drum I actually think my set may have been a 48-49. The legs were hoop mounted as well.

Thanks for posting those pics!

Kurt!/Jimmy!

Tommyp does indeed have them! I have owned these drums for 8 years now. They are indeed... beauties! I figured the date to be 1949/1950 on mine, agreed. Neat thing is that they are ALL aluminum badged WFL.. and .. I found a PERFECT matching 16X16 to make it the COMPLETE Buddy Rich Super Classic. I was also able to locate.. ( after looking for a few years ) .. the proper hardware including both flat base floor cymbal stands, HH, etc. The snare drum that came with this set is the matching 6.5X14 Ray McKinley, and that drum is near MINT. I play my 1955 WFL 5.5X14 Buddy Rich with this set as I prefer that size, as did Buddy. So... 14X24.. 9X13.. 16X16..16X16.. and 5.5X14. Buddy all the way! I have gigged these, and they play/sound GREAT as I think you would both agree. For the past few years I have been using them as my daily practice set as I gig 99.9% on my 1965 Rogers Buddy Rich Celebrity's. Certainly nice to come into the drum room and play these DAILY though! I'll attach a few pics...

Tommyp