Hi John!

Sellers have been inflating prices on these "poor man's Jazz Festival" for some time now. Doesn't mean they sell! A quick look at SOLD Ludwig Standard snare drums shows they average close to $300. Some sell for less and others, depending on condition and wrap, sell for $400 and a bit over! The drum you pictured is either Gold or Bronze Strata. Sometimes hard to tell the difference! However, both are fairly rare finishes, so the price goes up! From the one picture, the drum looks clean. Do you know if the interior is first year white Resacote or later Granitone? The white interior will also command a bit more...sometimes!

-Mark

Thanks man! Seller says 1971, and another pic clearly shows a granitone interior. It’s very clean and the finish is super cool!

Fully agree with Mark

I have about 10 of these in my collection and have paid anywhere from $120 up to $300

The Avocado Strata will get up to $350 in really good condition and the Lemon Strata which is like finding unicorns goes for $400 +

I find they average $250

That's Gold Strata. That's one of the more common colors for sets ( after blue and ruby) but not sure how that carries over to snares since so many sets came with the metal snares. I kept a pretty close eye on these when I was trying to snag one in each of the six strata colors. At that time they ranged from $125 -$300 depending on the condition, color, and knowledge of the seller ( the difference between selling an "old drum" and selling a "poor man's jazz fest").

These days it's rare to see any of them listed below $200 and some will turn up at really high asking prices but typically they seem to loiter between $250 and $300 as far as asking prices.

The very first drum set I ever played upon was my best friend's Ruby Strata kit! And....of course everything sounded wonderful to me. I still reminisce about that kit with him almost every time we communicate. The Standard pedals were less than great, but he changed his out in favor of a Ghost...which I also loved....I keep telling myself I'm going to buy a nice one some day....

K.O.

Thanks for letting us know that the finish is Gold Strata and one of the more common finishes. Still, the drum, and wrap, look very clean. Has the same shell, strainer, butt, hoops and tension rods as the Jazz Festival. Depending on the asking price, it may still be a great drum to obtain.

-Mark

I have six of them and they all have that jazzfest sound. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to the listener but they are only the "poor man's jazz fest" because they tend to cost less, not because they aren't as good sounding of a drum.

After Ruby and Blue they all seem to get a bit harder to find. Gold is probably next most common but hard to say conclusively. Demand is highest for Lemon because it's just so cool and Avocado because it's perceived to be the rarest but I had a lot more trouble finding a bronze strata and my feeling is that wrap sold the least of the six. Again hard to say because so many people confuse gold and bronze stratas ( if you see white pearl in the mix it's gold strata, just black and orange = bronze). When I finally did bag a bronze it was being listed as gold.

Wooo, you're making me feel special for finding a bronze strata at a yard sale for $15. The guy had the entire set but he had painted over the rest of them because as he put it (when I bought the snare) "I mean seriously look at that wrap, it's hideous." I'm kicking myself for not grabbing the rest of the set and trying to remove the paint, but c'est la vie.

Been looking for a lemon strata snare for a while.