i saw them live! no joke. belushi was amazing. ... and that band was unreal.

For Elwood and

"Four fried chickens and a coke" for "Joliet" Jake ....

My understanding is that we seldom, if ever, see aluminum in it's pure form, and that everything we think of as aluminum is an alloy, and there are thousands of types of aluminum.

I've painted aluminum and the problem I've had is that in addition to needing etched for paint to stick, aluminum has unique heat properties and shrinks and expands like crazy. The chrome on a Supra has a hard time keeping up with that and I always thought that that was why the chrome fell off. It comes from being in an environment of constantly cycling temperatures and humidities. Without the cycling it probably wouldn't happen.

There's two honkys outside dressed like Hasedic diamond merchants.....

Uhhh..... I know how to use a search function. I've actually used it here.... a bunch of times as a matter of a fact, and prior to this posting. My searches didn't turn up any real data on the alloy. While the link to the sticky you posted in the thread has value (thanks for the link BTW) it doesn't answer the question I posed at the start of this thread.

I'm just trying to figure out what the alloy is. If a manufacturer calls it aluminum then it's going to have to fit that narrow definition related to purity. I heard aluminum shell so many times I just want to know if it fits the narrow definition of aluminum or if it is an aluminum alloy. If the shells are aluminum and not an an alloy why the need for chroming (especially to a quoted cost conscious Bill Ludwig)?

Is "Ludaloy" then a special finish on these shells (a chrome). According to the stickers Ludwig placed in the shells of it's drums Ludaloy is a coating... see the attachments.

"LUDALOY"

A RELIABLE PLATING PROCESS

CORROSION RESISTANT

ANTI-GALVANIC FINISH

Aluminum has excellent corrosion resistance and less so when it is alloyed with copper -- due to galvanic reactions. If the Supra's are an aluminum alloy that might explain the need for the chroming. But I'd rather not suppose, I'd rather have the facts.

I hear ya on that. That's why manufacturers are careful what they call a given product and why they have been classified by ranges in the ANSI definitions. Not really critical in music service but certainly more so in industrial applications.

I'm curious to know what others would think if they found out that their brass shell really aint brass (or bronze), and it certainly aint an aluminum/Al alloy?

Aretha !!!...............Laughing H

to my ears there is a huge difference in sound from the ludalloy shells and the brass and bronze shells! john bonham was a stickler on that ludwig send him ludalloy shells only he didn't like the darker sound the brass shells produce!

Cause people like chrome....

I may have inadvertantly tested this theory.

My back-up snare which lived in the van had been a Brass Supra. Recently, I switched to keeping my old B/O supra in there. It is just now flaking and it never did before.

I got it in "84.

The heat has been crazy.

Once again......................Its a MARKETING NAME THAT THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT CAME UP WITH. As stated before...ALL aluminum drums are an alloy. No one makes a pure aluminum shell. Pure aluminum is too soft and would collapse the second you try to put any pressure on it. Reliable was the plating company. Anti-Galvanic was just another Ludwig marketing department trade name for the chrome plating process. And Ludwig ain't saying what the alloy exactly is because they have an industry exclusive, have for years and they don't want the rest to try and copy it. Its something commonly called a "trade secret". Leave it at an aluminum alloy and move on.

WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND????

Am I wrong in thinking this is SOOOOOO simple????

And why chrome? Again as stated before by others.....BECAUSE PEOPLE LIKE CHROME SHINY THINGS. DOH DOH

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