its all original incl kick hoops. it makes me think its a tad older but its still a top of the line maple kit. the elite brackets are still an option.

$600 a fair price?

If they are in as good a shape as they look I think 600.00 is a really good deal,esp if you are after the Classic Maple sound.And esp if you did WMP,which I do.

They probably have a date stamp inside. make sure you look over the wrap carefully as some of the older 90's pearls have the tendency to crack. Also I think classic maple may have come into production around 1997 and the shells were 9-ply. Before that they were just called classics and the shells were 6-ply with 4 ply shell as an option that was available in the early 90's. The no inlay thing was also done in the 90's and Ludwig realized by the end of the 90's that customers wanted that inlay look again. 600 sounds like a decent deal and they should sound pretty damn good.

Great price I think.

Hmm, btw are those blue lug drums the Mapex MyDentity? I guess the option of designing your own drum color scheme didn't work for that person...another failed gimmick? :)

The drums came and I am convinced that they are a re-wrap. But then I remembered your post saying that the wmp wrap can crack etc. The floor tom and bass drum are cracked, coming loose and frankly look like they do not even fit (especially the bass drum). Before I return them, can anyone verify if they are re-wrapped. All of the grommets had slight splintering on the inside. But the pics below show the worst of the wrap on the bass drum. The bass drum has an approximate 1/8th inch gap missing all around the drum on the resonant side. Did Ludwig really do **** work like this in the late 90's. The tom is the only drum with a date stamp. It is from 1999. The resonant side bass drum head says "90th anniversary." Thanks,

So, you didn't know about the tiny cracks in the wrap? That looks like a re-wrap the way the edge of the wrap looks uneven. I'm sure that's why they sold it for $600, still not a bad deal.

its hard to tell w/o a close up pic of the badges but i believe its original.

you don't know how it was cared for (or uncared for) before you got it, so i wouldn't be quick to judge ludwig for doing a bad job. sometimes only time will tell if the material itself is bad or shrinks over time.

the kit i bought new in 97 before they were avail looks like new. if you come by to pick up some wrap anytime soon bring a drum with you. i also have new wmp wrap if you want to rewrap it.

Here is a pic of the floor tom issues and the corresponding badge. I am hard pressed to think that a 16 year old drum set would need to be re-wrapped, but I am also hard pressed to think that Ludwig had quality issues like this. I have not always been good to my drums (left in cars etc) but I have never had a wrapped drum set do this to me.