Too bad you can’t see the inside of the drums, Ludwig used a rubber stamp to put the month, day and year on the inside of the shell, that could get you closer to determining how close they were.

So going by the photos and info provided, what series kit would this have been? Being a 22" kick drum I would have assumed a Super Classic outfit but wasn't that only issued with a 13" rack tom unlike this one which is a 12"? So perhaps a Super Classic outfit that at some point had an owner that preferred a 12" rack tom and swapped out its original 13"? What are your thoughts on this?

All Ludwig drums at the time were Super Classics, ie: they only made one line of drums and all the various outfits were combinations of those drums. One outfit was somewhat confusingly also called the "Super Classic" which was a 13/16/22 set configuration.

It's possible that the tom got swapped out at a later date. It's equally possible that someone ordered that configuration with the smaller tom if that happened to be their preference or that the dealer made the substitution before selling the drums, either at the buyers request or because they happened to have those drums in stock. Hard to say. If the serial numbers are close then any of the above might have happened. If the serial on the 12" is way off then the first scenario is more likely. In any case they are the same type of drum, just two different sizes of said type of drum. Don't get too wrapped up in the few catalog configurations. The set is no less useable because the small tom is a bit smaller. No where is it written in stone that a 22" bass drum must be used only with 13 & 16" toms. Unless you're a hard core collector who wants only catalog sets, then this one won't quite qualify.

From what I see the tom is not family. It's the same color but a different lot #. Same with it's badge. I'm not even a Ludwig guy and I can tell you they are all Ludwig but one has a different mom. It may be the result of the owner or store putting it together.

Also the badge on the small tom looks as it has been remove and replaced at some point,either with the same badge or a different badge

Possibly for a re-wrap to match the floor tom and kick drum if added at a later date to replace a pre existing 13" tom?

It appears to be a rewrapped 12" to me. The badge has obviously been removed from the looks of that grommet. Silver sparkle wrap is common and easily matched.

Yes, that's a bass drum and floor tom that is 2/3rds of what Super Classic SHELL PACK is. There were more factors involved to really make it a Super Classic drum SET -as sold by Ludwig back in those days, according to the catalogue reference information. Ludwig didn't sell shell packs, as a general rule as far as I'm aware -most major drum companies of the time didn't either. You'd also need to have the matching Supra and the proper hardware package to have a proper Super Classic as depicted in the old catalogues.

Personally I never liked the 13" toms to play....but personal preferences or custom orders or what music stores did in-house, etc. doesn't make a bit of difference when it comes to collectors of catalogued drum sets, today. We would have to get into a time machine and go back in time in order to be able to use the catalogues in the way they were designed to be used...But we obviously can't use them to order from anymore, so their intended use isn't relevant anymore.

What you have is a vintage Ludwig drum shell pack in an unnamed configuration....at this point. If you get a proper silver sparkle 13" tom and a Supra and some proper hardware, then you will have a Super Classic configuration.

On the contrary, Ludwig and the rest were generally happy to sell you whatever you wanted however you wanted it. It was simply a matter of having your dealer order it that way.

Because there was no quality control the badges do not continue as one would think they should

I knew I guy who worked at Slingerland they throw out so many shells daily from mistakes most still had badges on them so minus waste from factory errors you can justify a few digits off but I agree with bec that’s the just of it

Gary

Yeah again, what one could do wasn't the general rule for how Ludwig sold drum sets. It was always an option for a customer to order what they wanted, but that was done in specific ways for specific customers and not as a general rule. Ludwig didn't advertise their configurations this way and neither did any major drum company of the time. The general rule was that people bought full drum sets and not shell packs.