Man that kit is soooo cool it gave me a "Hullabaloo" flashback with the birdcaged go-go girls to boot!

I get so many looks at this kit. Not a bad Craigslist find, all original and matched to boot. Thanks!

Mike, Rockie, Hawg:

THANKS! Just what I needed for this project...

Still needing stuff about Rocker's 1 & 2, any Combo and of course the Educator line.

Also, it was suggested that I include Club Date's since in a fashion, they are 'B' line also... So any Club Date info would be welcomed.

Thanks again guys!

Yeah, I remember when I was a kid I looked at Clubbies as being Ludwig's "cheap" line. Sure don't see it that way now!!

Yeah, I know. When I first got the suggestion, I thought "Club Date's?" But then realized that, in a way they are indeed a successful 'B' line, in a fashion...

I know, I'll probably start getting flamed and stoned for saying that... but hey! LoLoLoLo

I am the other forum member fishwaltz mentions who is looking at this. My focus is mainly the original series of Ludwig Standards. I just got tired of the following statement, taken from the vintage drum guide's section on Ludwig serial numbers:

"If you have this badge you can't use the serial number guides below. Click Here (Shows Standard Badge)"

After all the work done on dating Keystone badges, it seemed odd that everyone simply accepted that Standards' serial numbers did not fit and left it there. I have a Standard set and a snare myself and thought I could apply some of the lessons learned with my Gretsch project (www.GretschDrumDatingGuide.com) to this particular unresolved issue. I contacted several forum members about their drums and have assembled a collection of over 100 drums. Only about one-fifth of those have both serial numbers and dates on them, but I had to start somewhere. While my focus is on the original Standards (circa 1968-1974), fishwaltz was intrigued by the other American made series. We decided on a common approach and hope that our projects will produce something of interest.

For the Standards, I am hoping that patterns will begin to appear after I have about 100 serial number/date stamp pairs. Right now, there is too little data to draw any conclusions. It does appear that there were about 100,000 Standards made.

With Gretsch it took thousands of drums before there were useful patterns, largely because Gretsch did not use date stamps during the period I researched. I hope that Ludwigs will prove a quicker project.

We are trying not to both harass forum members and hoping to avoid duplication of effort on the data collection effort. Thanks for all of theinformation so far.

Rick

Hi Guys,

Are you still collecting info regarding Ludwig Standards?

I am new to this forum and am still enjoying checking-out all the contents...Amazing !

Anyway, I've had my Standards for about 14 years & I love 'em. I have had several sets of vintage Ludwigs (still have my 1st set of drums - WFL) and IMO these Standards compare favorably to all of them.

Mine have no dating information inside, so I don't know if this will be of any use to you ('hope so).

They are Blue Mist wrap and are originally equiped with Classic tension lugs: the rest of the fittings are Standard ones. Because of this I have always thought they were prob. '71 or '72 vintage but I have no clue. Maybe your reseach will help answer that question.

22x14 - 81243, 16x16 - 81248, 13x9 - 86268, 12x8 - 81247.

I don't have a Standard snare but use either an Acrolite or a silver sparkle Slingerland, depending on what the music requires.

I will be interested to see what your study finds.

Thanks,

MarkE

Definitely. I was working on the paper explaining the data collection and analysis last night. I have information from more than 300 drums so far. Fifty-five of these have both serial number and date indicated, so they help to demonstate the correlation between serial number and date. Preliminary results are at www.GretschDrumDatingGuide.com - select the Ludwig Serial Number Projects link.

Realize that any dating guide of this type provides only an estimate. There is a general relationship between serial number and date, but it is not precise. With that said, I would expect that your drums are from fairly late in the run of Standards, likely from the 1973 time frame. I base this more on the serial numbers than the mix of hardware. Do they have Granitone interiors?

Rick

Hey guys -

I picked up a RED MIST 4 pc Standard kit a few weeks ago. 1/2 the badge on the BD snapped off (probably got snagged???) so there's no #, but there is a date of "? ? 1969". Other #'s : 12" - 14602, 13" - 15446, 16" FT 16497. I've no doubt the kit came together.

Very (I think) interesting thing is the 12" tom has white interior, the rest GRANITONE.

Best - Chris[IMG]http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n635/WHWallbanger/redmist1.jpg[/IMG]

and :[IMG]http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n635/WHWallbanger/redmist2.jpg[/IMG]