What finnish are you planning ?

They were originally multi brilliant gold.

Can't decide between a single Karellian Birch ply or some kinda satin flame, probly white or chrome blue. Rowlux has alot of nice ones now that were not available in the 60s. Same great trippy 60s look though.

The flame would fit the era, I like the white flame myself !i

I didn't realize when I last did anything with these, oh 15 or so years ago, that sonor made their shells with vertical plies. Thought only Asian drums were made that way.

Also, I am now also pretty damn sure that this is a transition set from 64-65.

The stuff I've seen on those years shows the shells going from 3 ply with rings, to 6 ply with the reinforced joint(only on snares and bass drums), to straight 6 ply.

Also, the badges go from the double mallets, to the split "made in western germany" badges, to a split badge that say's "made in west germany" and then dropping the smaller of the 2 badges.

This all happens from late 63 to 65 some time.

If you look carefully, you`ll see slanted seams (hard to find), Sonor takes flat stock, cuts it into veneer and bookmatches them together to form a glued sheet. Then they apply glue and oven bend and cure them into plied shells. Asians use full plywood sheets. If you look at their Rosewood finnish, you`ll see grain that seems to repeat around the drum but each time is slightly different than the next. This is because the grain changes slightly as you go deeper into the flat stock with each veneer cut.

The middle layers are not so carefully done but they do leave out voids (Knots) in the ply by selection. It cuts down on waste but there is some to a degree !i No-one else that I`ve seen does this !i

The double mallet logo went to 64, then there were several versions of the squared twin and single badge up to the Centennial badge of 1975 !i

There were changes in logo size, shaft length, imprinted, silk screened, two piece and one piece. The one thing Sonor did not do, was keep records. At least not many !i

Over at the sonormuseum site, we don`t use catalogs or Sonor for dateing,...we got Henk !i

kk

Seeing as I probably won't ever find a matching 14 or 18 floor tom for these, I'm going to finish this 71 Luddy 15X12 snare in the same wrap and use this.

I have used it this way for years and it.s a great tonal match between the 13 and 16.

I'll have to re cut the bottom edge but that's ok. Can't see me ever wanting a 15" snare.

Here's the big surprise.

This is the much lauded Ludwig 3 ply shell of lore and I have to admit, it sounds great. Much larger than it's size. Great tone but............

...WHAT A CRAPPY JOINT!

I'm not impressed with the build quality at all. Egg shaped. Big bump where the plies meet.

Would never have expected to see this on a Luddy.

Was this a Monday morning or Friday afternoon drum?

Is this indicative of Ludwig's QC at the time?

[IMG]http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn241/JimmiHolliwood/Holliwood/Sonor%20Restoration/ludwigsnft007_zpsb137336a.jpg[/IMG]

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[IMG]http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn241/JimmiHolliwood/Holliwood/Sonor%20Restoration/luddyseam003_zps5fdf4d25.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn241/JimmiHolliwood/Holliwood/Sonor%20Restoration/luddyseam001modifiedb_zps45bc50f9.jpg[/IMG]

Hi Holliwood, you don't have a pic of the original wrap do you? I'm getting ready to do my teardrops and would like to see something in a gold sparkel. I want to keep it true to the era.

Good luck with your project, can't wait to see it when it's finished.

Gary