I would ask for some interior pictures of the grommet on the FT to see if the rounded corner badge was added later. I am sure Mike (MLayton) will chime in on the physical attributes. it is a nice looking kit, if your not interested I may be, will send you a pm

Michael

They look fine to me. I guess it depends on the price. If the price is reasonable, I'd jump on them.

Really they can't (easily) be rewrapped as that wrap has never been available (since the mid 1970's) in a form that looked like the original. I would guess that the badge is a replacement but other than that things look okay to me in the pictures.

Bum Wraps makes the closest match for use on a rewrap but it isn't exact and you can find repeats in the pattern if you look closely, whereas the original stuff is completely random throughout.

Serial numbers just get you in the ballpark but are far from an exact science...but if that badge were original then that drum should be a six ply, and the six ply transition (roughly 1977-78) occurred just as Psych Red was being phased out...and the final version of that wrap that they used at the tail end of the color's availability was very different from what you have there.

If the price is right I'd jump on them. I just got a similar set (from 1971) a couple months ago and they are very cool. Mine was more faded than those appear to be. It all comes down to how much green is left in the wrap (it fades out to white if exposed to too much UV light...so, if you get these, keep them out of the sun). The more green the more green...if you catch my drift..... ;)

Thanks for your hints and tips.

I bought it and wait for shipping. I'll keep you posted and will send some pics once its here.

Simon

Those certainly look to be original color wise. Kevin is right about the color changing as well. I have seen psych red sets that used the later version that were made all the way up to the riveted time frame which was 1980 or so. I have never seen a rounded corner badge on this version of psych red though. Is the floor tom the only drum with a rounded corner badge? If the badge(s) is indeed original to the set then I am wondering if Ludwig had the shells already made up with the wrap and badged it later? Psych red was probably not a big seller by the mid to late 70's and it would easily seem possible to me that some shells took longer to finish due to slow sales.

The plus in all of this is that the color looks great! Nobody has copied that wrap just like the original and a lot of the original sets have faded green areas. As Kevin mentioned earlier, $$green=green$$

The floor looks unmolested to me, and the wrap looks consistent in brightness

and or fade. It could be that the floor tom is one of the first generation of the

rounded corner badges, and was just added to this set. It looks factory to me.