I saw that drum on Ebay and took a double take. My guess is that it is a Japanese snare with Ludwig Hardware based on the butt side and the interior of the shell.

Someone took a Ludwig washer and created a badge with that brass insert.

The shell wood grain on the interior runs up and down and the butt side

surely looks Japanese to me. No snare beds either.

Nice job who ever assembled it and wrapped in new WMP.

Let's see what O-lugs has to say about this one???

David

I emailed the seller to see if we can get some interior pictures of the badge area, that will explain

it better and then a better shot of the shell also.

-definitely NOT a Ludwig shell!

The badge is VERY old -one of the earliest Ludwig badges...now obscured by a massive grommet.

The lugs are Ludwig bowties. The throwoff is a P-85 -both of which are FAR removed from the era that the badge is from.

Crazy drum!

It's worth the price of the parts...that's about it.

I thought something was funny about this snare. The badge look very old compared to the rest of the drum. I'm a neophyte here. I wouldn't know the shell was not a Ludwig...

Now, a little bit about me if you don't mind. :) I'm 42 and play drums as a hobby for three years now. I own a very fine electronic kit which I can play whenever I want at home, but it surely not the real thing. So I decided to get myself a nice acoustic set and thought "Why not go vintage?" I always love the sound, look and feel of the old thing. Here is what I just bought on Ebay this week-end (http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7382691228). I plan to restore it. I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with the finish. Maybe I will sand it and apply a mahogany dye on the shell and natural maple on the bass drum hoops to match this snare drum I bought this morning (http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7382432862). So, this is my project. I will sure have a lot of newbie questions for you in the next weeks. :D

David, you have a very nice and informative web site. Thank you for it!

Pierre.

That's a real nice set...black lacquer is actually a pretty rare finish. If the badges haven't been messed with, I'd leave the finish alone. The hardware should clean up nicely. Remove it all from the shells. If it's nickel, I'd recommend Cape Cod polishing cloths. The inlays were probably silver sparkle (not the glass glitter type), and are readily available at places that sell wrap. Very cool first vintage set...

I agree with what Rich K. said...Don't mess with the finish -PLEASE! Original kits like that are rare in comparison to the ones that people "fix". That is the second painted -finish kit I have seen since I joined this site! The other one was RED! And, yes, the inlay strips for the bass drum hoops would have been silver sparkle and it's an easy replacement. You won't believe how much more "dressed" that kit will look when the strips are replaced.

I KNOW those drums will just KILL in terms of sound!

Now...that marching snare drum is another question....

Personally, I think the sound of those is a bit "gloompy". It looks like a nice complete drum and all.... I wouldn't want to use that snare drum with that black kit, though. I mean..."To each his own" and all that, but...a "better" choice for a snare drum would have been a Supra or even an Acrolite. Acrolites are readily available on Ebay -NICE ones, too (and cheap!)!

That marching snare is a whole other animal apart from the kit...BOTH are nice in their SEPARATE ways for their own individual. You got a GREAT deal on the kit. The marching snare? Well....;)

P.S. As I was looking at the pictures more closely...it APPEARS that your marching snare drum has been refinished. The grommet on the badge looks re-grommeted and the finish on the shell looks like it has what is called "orange peel" -usually the result of a spray-can application. The color doesn't look quite right for a drum that age, either. It looks too new. You probably paid a bit too much for that one. Of course, the quality of those pictures is not the greatest and it's hard to see the details. I reserve the right to be wrong! ;)

Wow! and I just realized that that is a "single-tension" drum...meaning that you cannot tension the top and bottom heads separately. The LONG lug screws "lace" through the center lugs and when the lug screw is turned, it affects both heads at the same time. This drum is really meant for the field. The lack of the ability to "fine-tune" the drum is the result of the greater necessity for the drum to be quickly re-tuned in the field without having to remove the drum.

I'll bet most of the people on this site have one of those marching snares (or one very like it) in their collections somewhere -I do! Mine is an old Leedy.

Yes, over priced with those mods, but it would make a nice candidate for a shell chop job. Cut it down, fix the lugs with springs and inserts, re-install the rienforcemnt rings and change the badge placement.

You would need to be creative with the old badge, but if you are matching the black set then you have yourself an 8 lug "fake" jazz festival. patch the old badge and strainer hole if necessary, paint the inside white (only if you want to cover the imperfections) and paint the outside in the black lacquer.

I have never done a transition like that, but it has been done with very good results.

Oh, I have a Slingerland marching snare and a Ludwig Vistalite marching snare in the collection.

It would be a nice project, unless you play a really deep snare and want to keep it that way!

David

WOW!!! Your insight are so much appreciated, guys. I must say that the marching snare is a bit of an impulsive buy :( . I saw it and find it looked really nice. I bid the starting bid and end up winning it. At the time I bidded, there was a 350$ BIN that may have fool me a little (but we all know Ebay...). Anyway, I'm not disappointed. Maybe I will only keep it as it is, being a nice marching snare in my newly starting vintage drums collection :)

David, your idea of cutting it down is cool, but not for me at this moment. I thing I would have problems doing the bearing edge, among other things...

I'm glad to see that the kit seem to be a good deal. I will shine the hardware and replace the silver inlays, but I promise I won't do anything else before asking for advises here first. ;)

Pierre

Hey guys,

That Japanese snare dressed in Ludwig hardware....The badge is actually a Ludwig COB washer used on the bass drum double tom mount holder. There were 2 sizes of the center hole.

LOL! By God, you are correct! Nice catch!