Yes, but you are getting to the point in time where virtually all the good 14" FT are mated to other kits, especially in C/S, and many will be with a Downbeat kit, as it is the most popular 14" FT config, unless you go with a Club Date tom, which is difficult to find in C/S wrap as it (C/S wrap) was more expensive to manufacture, using real metal flakes, copper and some silver.

At some point, the Club Date was a bit less expensive, sort of a mid level price point, between the Downbeat and Standards in the early B/O era (while they were still making the Standard line, anyway) and that was one way to keep the cost down, presumably, by using the less expensive blue and red sparkle, for example.

So, to find one in really nice condition, you will look long and hard, and you will pay dearly, on top of the shipping to Japan (any condition Ludwig 14 FT will cost you a lot).

You could find an early 70s Pearl 14 with a maple interior veneer, buy some retro C/S wrap and some Ludwig mini classic lugs and make do until you find the real one. In the early 70s, Pearl used a maple veneer interior ply in floor toms and bass drums. They are good quality shells, but no re-rings. Those you can add for next to nothing, if your kit has them. You fail to mention whether they are 3 or 6 ply. That really makes no difference on the Pearl tom as they are a good mix of wood that have a huge tuning range.

Good Luck!

I never heard the champagne sparkle wrap was any different price than any of the other wraps. A 14" FT has larger classic lugs, not mini-classic lugs. In general, though a 14" ft is going to be hard to find in any color or date range. More are probably around that are Club Dates, but most of those are matched with a club date set. I suggest trying to find a Ludwig 14" that has been re-wrapped, so you could justify wrapping champagne on it if you can find a suitable replacement wrap that matches.

Interesting that the set you inherited has the Pro Beat configuration only it has 12/13 rack toms instead of 13/14. If you were willing to go with one, you could also look for a 14" rack tom in CS and go with that. I know they're around because I bought and sold one several years ago, it had the speckled granitone interior. Good luck! With all those drums, you'd think you could do well with what you have! Another possibility, would be to sell the 24/13/16 and then use those funds to find a 14, but you'd be splitting it up. If it was a normal pro beat set with the 13/14 toms, you would have an easier time finding a 12".

Thanks for the info, guys. I tried to upload some photos but am not having good luck, so I'll just link the thread about the kit from Cymbalholic if you wish to check it out.

http://www.cymbalholic.com/forums/showthread.php?44655-I-finally-got-my-familiy-s-gear!-%29&highlight=

All the drums with the exception of the 18" have very close serial numbers though the 18 dates to the same year so I'm guessing they all came together. Also, the 18 has the speckled interior while all the others are natural maple. Strange.

I've considered looking for something "close" but I've done that before with other kits and was never happy. Also have considered building a drum with a Keller shell, but I know I'll never be satisfied until I find the real, correct drum. I've got a bunch of gig money stashed away for gear purchases so I don't mind spending a bit to get what I really want. I'd like to get either the correct drum or even a clubdate as long as it's original and in the correct finish and size. I guess I'll just have to be patient.

If you're willing to wait and look around, you ought to be able to find something--even if it's a 60s keystone badge 14" floor tom. Be ready to pay for it, though.. They can be pricey.

Mr. P~ I was referring to the OLD, Original wrap that was more expensive, and if you look, when there is any C/S wrap available today, it is usually more than some of the other colors. (I have been looking into it myself for a kit).

Mr. J.. I misunderstood you. You were talking about buying old wrap and putting that on an older drum or a different shell?. I was talking about buying the drum with the original wrap on it. BTW I looked at the pictures on Cymbalholic.. Nice set.. It would probably be very difficult to find a 14" in champagne but not impossible. Usually I would go the most harmonious route and either play the set as it is, take my time to find the 14" drum, or sell the set altogether and try to find what you really want to play (such as a Gretsch set). Out of curiosity, what sizes was the RB Gretsch set?

Finding a B/O floor tom in champagne will probobly be pretty difficult. They definately made them but by the 70's the smaller drums were not as prevelant. I have a B/O badge jazzette in silver sparkle and it has the correct B/O badge 14" floor tom. I would just build a replica for now and wait for a real one. Could be a long while.

^^^This. Could be a LOOOOONG wait!

As for the champagne sparkle topic, when I was looking at getting some authentic champagne sparkle wrap, it was always in a separate pricing category, and not lumped in with the silver/blue/red/green/whatever sparkles. That's when I learned that it had bits of silver and copper in it, hence the price. Now, SINCE then, I've seen several "pink champagne" and "pink" sparkles that come close to the general color of true champagne sparkle that are priced the same as the other sparkles, but it's not the same thing.

I don't know a thing about how it was priced back in the day, but if I really cared, I could look that up in the catalog scans. But I don't. I do know that the older champagne sparkle kits in my area (Portland/Seattle) DON'T sell for more than, say, silver/blue sparkle. Red sparkle and green sparkle tend to sell for a bit more. Burgundy sparkle--look out! I've only seen ONE of those, it was recent, and the price was too rich for my blood.

I would suggest waiting for a Champagne 14" Keystone floor tom. That would be a close match and it would be fairly close in terms of the build of the drum, although the interior would be different, painted white or whatever. I just spoke with a friend who has a KB era set with 12/14/18 configuration (bass is original 12x18) and he had to purchase the 14 separately. They're also Champagne sparkle, and he said he paid around $450 shipped for it. He said he has seen one other one on Ebay which also went for that price range. Not saying you'd have the same results, but you might. If it were me I'd look for the original Ludwig Champagne 14 floor tom (any era) and just be happy with it. If you wanted to get really picky you could try to put a B/O badge on it, but I'm not on board for that: Although I said on another post that I wasn't a "purist", I still don't believe in altering an otherwise perfectly good KB drum just to get the badge to match up with a B/O badge.

As to whether you should build a new drum from scratch, I don't like that idea, as it would be re-enforcing the drum parts sellers who dissassemble and sell lugs and such from perfectly good drums, and, in the end you'd be out close to the same amount of money as you would be if you'd just had some patience and looked around carefully until you found the original (albeit possibly earlier KB) replacement.

Besides, time isn't an issue here, because you're going to be faced with converting the 18" to a bass drum anyway. Also you could find a 14" Champagne rack tom that would be nice although it would need to be mounted as a "fusion style" floor tom--Still another reasonable alternative depending on what your searches bring you.