Those are beautiful! Great job on them and cool documentation too. Enjoy~! :)

Classic beauties. Just gorgeous.

-Jeff

Great pix , well done hanging on to those beauties for all these years.Clapping Happy2

Cam

very very sweet kit, thx for sharing it with us !

Beautiful kit! I plan on breaking down my 68's in the fall. What are some of the cleaning methods you used? They came out great.

Thanks for the kind comments. At one point when I had just entered the working world and didn't play them very much I told my mom that I was thinking about selling the kit for some extra money. Without hesitation she replied "Oh no! Don't ever sell your drums". For once I listened to her and dropped the thought immediately. She seemed so sure of herself.

In early 2012 I once again considered selling them to "de-cumulate" (de-clutter the house). After all, I only played them maybe once a year. It was low hanging fruit. Even the captions under the "before" photo on Flickr indicated my intention was to clean up and sell so I joined 2 drum forums to learn what to do. Thankfully for me the market for vintage drums was depressed and I had too much fun cleaning them after work and hitting all the red lights on Memory Lane. Definitely not for sale now. I'm playing again.

All washers and screws were soaked in an oil bath to remove 4 1/2 decades of grime and any residual white "resocoat" paint stuck to the drum side of the washers. Then I used small Dremmel wire brushes or mandrells in my drill press to shine them - very tedious indeed and 'over the top' AR. I knew they'd never be seen again but I also knew that long after my stewardship was done, the kit needs to still look good when it turns 100, which it will with style.

Maguiar's Quick Wax spray (from Auto Zone) was used to clean the veneer.

A trusted staff member at Lone Star Percussion suggested Simichrome on the chromed metal. That came from a Woodcraft Supply store and was applied with a used sock, a collection of various shaped small nylon or brass brushes and/or Q-tips. A 2nd pass with another old sock further buffed and removed excess paste. Finally, I buffed each metal part with a microfiber cloth (3-pack from Wal-Mart). Hoard all of the small 5" x 7" thick aluminum foil "carry-out" pans you can find for the job.

The cymbals were rubbed down over the edge of the kitchen sink with a half lemon. It's not too acidic so almost all of the patina remained but the fingerprints, dust & grime disappeared. Then I buffed them with a microfiber cloth for a deep lustrous shine. I used cymbal cleaner 2 or 3 times in the first few years and let them mellow after that.

I'll post some more photos to Flickr this evening of the repainted bass drum hoops which are an interesting story in themselves if you read the captions.

Take lots of photos before, during and after. It might save you when trying to decide which washer goes on next when rebuilding a muffler assembly with over a dozen parts.

Really, really glad I listened to my mom.

That's a real beauty! Was the 8x12 tom mount always located there? I only ask as typically the mount and the badge should have a panel between them instead of being right next to each other. Ludwig was cranking drums out by the hundreds in 1966 so I would'nt be a bit suprised if the set was drilled like that by accident and they just decided to send it anyway. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it that way and in fact Ludwig drills like that now. It's just one of those 60's anomilies that facinates me.

What made you decide to go with a 16" floor tom instead of the 14" floor that would have made this set a catalog downbeat? just curious. Again they are real beauties. I absolutely love Ludwig WMP.

To be honest, I'm pretty isolated from other drummers and drum sets other than my own set and on-line forums so your knowledge about the proper panels for the badge and mount placement is news to me. Interesting... I ordered the set via my local drum teacher/vendor but without any specific instructions to make it unusual. There are no mods whatsoever so this is just the way Ludwig threw it together. Being that the 12" tom is date stamped on 3/17/67 (St. Patrick's Day) in the middle of Chicago, my only theory is they had a few too many green beers at lunch. It's too bad the anomaly isn't worth as much as a mis-struck coin coming from the mint ($$$).

Why I bought a 16" in lieu of a 14" floor tom beats me. I was in 8th grade and probably the first one of my classmates to purchase a kit so I didn't know any better. Bigger is always better - right??? Dave Bedell, my drum teacher was the local jazz drummer guru so he probably influenced what I should buy based on his own personal preferences. One nice thing is that the entire kit nested together beautifully all in one bass drum case with all of the reso heads removed.

Dave: http://www.news-leader.com/article/20080704/NEWS01/807040364/Family-musicians-sound-off-late-drummer?nclick_check=1

Wow! beautiful! How could you not want to play them all day long. I picked up my sticks about 2.5 years ago after a very long break. I now have a band Im playing with and love it.

Thanks!

Jeff C