Let's make an analogy about 3-ply and 6-ply shells:
A saxophone player has many choices for what kind of mouthpiece to use. There are hard rubber mouthpieces (or even wooden mouthpieces) and different chamber shapes that react to the flow of air differently than others. There are also metal mouthpieces which are much brighter and more articulate than the others.
The choice of which sound better applies itself is subjective and up to the individual player to determine. Ludwig 3-ply shells lend the extra warmth I like -akin to a hard rubber or wooden mouthpiece for a saxophone. The 6-ply shells for a drum are more like a metal mouthpiece for a saxophone. They are brighter and more articulate.
I also own a set of drums with some of the thickest production wood shells ever made -Arbiter 12-ply! (all maple) to contrast with my 3-ply Ludwig sets. What happens is that the Arbiter shells are so thick and stiff, they don't get involved in the vibrational energy. They efficiently reflect the sound into the drumheads and out of the drum. They don't eat up that energy input the way a lightweight 3-ply shell does. Thus, they can be tuned much lower AND much higher. The entire effective tuning range is widened.
A Ludwig 3-ply shell is "soft" by comparison. They are made mostly of softer, lighter-weight poplar wood with just two very thin veneers of mahogany and maple. So, when you hit them, those soft shells wick off a lot of the input energy and the entire drum kind of "radiates" the sound when struck.
Since most modern drums went with the no-re-rings formula to facilitate manufacturing needs better, the thicker, multi-ply shells became extremely ubiquitous in the industry -across the board, until it got to the point that they were all you could get. The sounds of drums across the board became much more h o mogenous, too. Everybody started using the same drum building formulas. This eventually made the old ways of the 3-ply shell more "unattainable" to people who were seeking something apart from what the modern industry was producing after awhile. And everyone always wants what they can't have! Now, everybody wants the old 3-ply shells again -so much so, that Ludwig has re-released the Legacy line of drums -at nearly 5 times the amount of money that you would pay for a vintage 3-ply set! Go figure that one! (Actually, it's easy. The 3-ply shells are MUCH more expensive to make! -that's why they went away. It simply cost too much to continue making them that way and remain competitive in the industry.)
And that's another reason (completely apart from the sound factor) related to the 3-ply shells is that they are much more desirable to collectors and hold their value much better than the 6-ply shells.
:Santa:
