Perhaps the 13" tom is a righteous Ludwig drum that did not ship as part of the complete set. I'm going to guess that, somewhere along the line, a previous owner acquired the 13" tom that was either covered with a wrap or painted rather than stained. That drum was then stripped and stained in an effort to make it match the other drums. However, the outer ply of the 13" drum is a different type of wood that reacted differently to the stain than the other two drums. There's also the possibility that a different type of stain did not result in a match to the other two drums. The possibilities are endless. But, I do agree with others here that Ludwig would not have shipped these three drums together as drum set.

Yes the kick and floor tom finish look original to me. Rack re-finish was a total fail but I'll bet you can get it to match the other two, or someone can...

Wouldn't all Ludwig shells of this era be of mahogany outer ply? Is it likely that the lack of grain on the exterior of the 13" tom is due to it being sanded to a smoother finish prior to it being re-stained?

Mostly mahogany except for painted or maple finish shells I think. The wrap adhered better to the more grainy mahogany is what I've read here.

As far as I know you can't really get rid of the horizontal grain of the mahogany. Fill/sand, fill/sand, it's always peeking through in my experience. I could be wrong. But I'd guess it's maple and for whatever insane reason the previous owner finished the shell with vertical strokes of finish. Then maybe the finish "fogged", just to complete the failure. :) Or maybe it never was even close....

Either way if they were mine I'd take steps to get em matching. Probably hire a real re-finisher since it's a factory finish you're attempting to match.

HTH!

I also think that the bearing edges on the 13" tom are going to need recutting. Compared to the bearing edges on the floor tom and kick drum they look quite different and I fear that maybe they got heavily sanded by a previous owner when being stripped back ready to re-stain. I will get some photos posted to show you what I mean.

Ok, here are a few photos of the bearing edge on the 13" tom which doesn't look right to me. Would be keen to know what the experts here think but my thoughts are to have them re-cut. Once again, any input or advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks guys.

Following on from my above post, from what I understand the vintage Ludwig of this era had their bearing edges cut at a 30 degree angle with a round over but was this always the case? Would a smaller drum such as this 13" tom ever have its bearing edge cut different to that of the 16" floor tom and the 24" kick drum?

I would think not, and yes that edge looks way flat. Good news is you can bring it back with a re-finish and edge re-cut. Keep us posted...

As mentioned in my earlier post, unfortunately the kick drum is missing its original rail consolette and I would like to source a replacement for it. Will any of the 4 hole type of this era fit the original holes on the shell or were there variations during their production?

There are plenty of vintage spec and actual vintage rail consolettes available. They're not too expensive.