someone finally made the connection. people have been calling me john since my first post but i always signed my posts ryan. concert toms forever!!!!! kidding.

Hey no problem and your welcome...

Another question I get a lot is this....

Here is my serial number 46573929. Please tell me the production numbers, date of manufacture, the person that made it and who bought it originally.

LoLoLoLo

Ok a little sarcasm there, but I do get that question at least once a week!

David

I'd make up a name, date, etc and give it to them....

OK. So I have determined that my shell is aluminum. What heads and snares would work best for this drum? Just kidding.

Thanks Ludwig-dude for the straight info, and David for making it stick.

David, is there a way to make a new sticky pop up when you access this site, and keep popping up until it is visited?

Perhaps this could increase the actual reading of new info as it comes our way?

Just a thought...

Kevin

Oh thats a rare 1911 Ludwig made by Theo Ludwig himself and purchased by Billy Gladstone, later gifted to HH Slingerland, while at a housewarming party for U G Leedy.....LOL!

New ones. :pLoLoLoLo;)

Yes, thanks for the sticky and the website. I also get this question constantly.

There seem to be 5 areas of confusion:

1.) The weight of the 70's B/O chrome over brass drums...they aren't any heavier than a standard Ludalloy Supra, unlike the heavy 60's COB Supers. I sold a "B" stamp B/O badge COB Supra to a guy, and he was very skeptical because it wasn't heavy. Not only is it a different manufacturing process with a spun brass, rather than welded brass shell, but the 70's lugs and COS hoops weigh much less than the early 60's lugs and COB hoops.

2.) The transitional window around 1962/63 when the switch was made from brass to aluminum. If the drum has crimped beds, red felt baseball bat muffler, and preserial keystone badge, it is not necessarily brass. I find these drums to be brass about half of the time. The best way for me personally to know if a preserial drum is COB is to look for the weld seam.

3.) The pitting / flaking issue - just because a drum has zero pitting does not mean it is chrome over brass. Ludwig outsourced the chrome plating to more than one company, and some did it better than others. My theory is that the company(s) that used the heaviest copper pre-plate had the best success with chrome plating (least amount of pitting).

Which brings me to:

4.) The brass color inside of all Supraphonics often misleads people into thinking their drum must be brass...what they are actually seeing is the copper pre-plate.

5.) Can Supras with a serial number be chrome over brass? Answer: almost never. I've personally seen one Supraphonic from the late 1960's that had a serial number, and was chrome over brass. It had a B stamp over the muffler dial, and was the same spun / non-welded shell as the 70's COB drums. So it is so exceedingly rare that a serial numbered Supra is COB that if it doesn't have the B stamp, I assume it to be aluminum.

Great post, Bill. Thanks!

hey bill, did all the 60's cob have a welded seam?