Well, I took the plunge. I ended up trading a couple of guitars that I had about $275 into total, plus $100 cash for the set. So I figure I got them for around $375. The guitars were actually "worth" more, maybe double what I had invested in them, but by figuring their value at what I paid, I feel better about this deal :)
It turns out the guy who had the drums was a young guy, maybe 20 or so. He said his mom worked at the Illinois DCFS (Dept. of Child and Family Services) I guess at some sort sort of residential or recreational facility, and these drums had been sitting in storage there for years. They were going to leave them on the curb, but the mom took them home and gave them to her son. But the son is a guitarist, so he just stuck them in a corner at his band's rehearsal space, a former barn in Elgin, IL. Son decided he wanted some new guitar stuff so he put the drums up on CL, and I just happened to have some guitar stuff he liked, so we ended up making a deal. He was happy, and I'm happy.
About the drums: The tom and Jazz Festival snare have sequential serial numbers, 807xx, and the 22" x 14" bass is 805xx, so these were pretty obviously sold as a set and kept together (except for the possible missing FT.) According the the serial number charts here, that dates them to 1964. And as far as I can tell, everything is 100% original including the heads. Athough there's plenty of tarnish and surface rust on the hardware, the drums themselves are in excellent condition. They clearly haven't been abused, or even played much. The wrap isn't very faded, it's just caked with dust. If I can clean up the hardware (Dawn dishwashing detergent, here I come!), these are going to clean up real nice.
I started taking them apart, and when I popped the heads off, I would swear they smelled new inside still, kind of a faint paint smell. But these have definitely not been repainted - in fact, it really looks like this is the first time the heads have ever been off of them. There are no date stamps inside, but the snare and tom have the initials "JC" written in pencil next to the vent holes in both. The bass is equally minty fresh inside, no date stamp, but some indistinct initials in pencil near the vent hole (possibly "am", or "GM", or "aly"? - see pics below).
The 60s Ludwig catalogs show a separate set called the "Combo", which was basically a Club Date sans floor tom. So I suppose in a technical sense these kits aren't even Club Dates at all. Same drums, different setup.
This is where it gets slightly odd (typical for Ludwig, I guess.) These drums are from 1964, and checking the 1964 Ludwig catalog on this site, these drums do come close to matching the "Combo" kit, but there are a couple of notable differences.
The 1964 Combo kit is shown with a hoop mount tom holder, and "disappearing cymbal holder" that telecopes (periscopes? :)) down into the bass drum. My bass has a consolette rail mount for the tom, and an L-arm bracket cymbal mount. So it would be natural to think, well, a Club Date has a rail mount for the tom, so this must be a Club Date without a FT, except that the 1964 Club Date is also shown with a "disappearing cymbal holder".
There's also the issue of the BD legs. The 1964 Club Dates are shown with disapperaing legs, and my BD has those fold-away legs. The 1964 Combo kit is also shown with fold-away BD legs, so in the absence of any other clues, I'm going to go out on a limb and say my kit is a factory original but slightly oddball / transitional Combo kit. Seeing if a 1965 catalog shows a Combo kit with L-arm cymbal mount and rail tom mount might confirm that my kit just fell between the cracks, catalog-wise.
BTW, my drums also came with a (broken, for now) red Speed Master bass pedal, which I accidentally left at the guy's house, so I'll be making a return trip soon. That's the pedal shown with both the Club Date and the Combo kits in the '64 catalog.
Now, if anyone is still reading :), two questions:
1. Anyone have an extra cymbal L-arm?
2. What's the deal with the cowbell mount? I've never seen one with two thin arms like this - is it even a cowbell mount, or something else?
