That sounds like a good re-wrap project for some orphan drum shells. Why not?

I really don’t think they ever had cheap drums, until the foreign assets were brought in

that changed the dynamics of there build, so drastically that it did what the overseas consensus wanted , just like the ones they produced, now the playing field was leveled. It became a

free for all , free for all , da da da na nat!

Good topic. I've always wanted a Partridge Family Ludwig blue sparkle Standard kit. A friend has one but won't sell it to me.

The thing to remember about all the American made "budget" line drums mentioned above is that they used the same shells as their upper tier brethren . The cost savings mostly revolved around the lug configuration and some of the other fittings but the basic drums and how and where they were constructed was the same as the top line drums of the era.

Much different than today where each price tier has its own shell layup and are probably made somewhere far from where the top tier drums originate.

Everything is relative. My Tempros, as well as many other Sears/Roebuck type kits of the time, were "cheap" drums. The Standards, by contrast, were real drums that had been appointed with some less-fancy buttons and knobs (so-to-speak) in comparison to the higher-tier Classics, but the Standards still played the same....as did the Clubdates, Rogers single-lug drums, Slingerlands, etc. They weren't cheap, but they were offered as a more affordable (budget) alternative of the time.

It's often important to differentiate in terms other than just the basic stuff. Yes, the basic shells were the same on all the lines, but then one has to start factoring in design and aesthetic distinctions as well as whatever aspect of vintage drum collecting is trending at any given moment. Some models are more valued than others. It has relatively nothing to do with which one sounds better.

I think that O-Lugs pretty much nailed it in his most recent post about differentiating between cheap drums from the mid 20th century and budget-line drums in the same time period from the major drum manufacturers.