purdie shuffle; I,am back. Went to a local get together hit a few drums drank a couple of beers and left the rest of the night to the neighborhood youngsters. You have to realize I,ll be 70 July 3 so I would rather leave early and not watch neighbors get happy, if you know what I mean.

Anyway here is the pictures you wanted. I can tell right off that the rack tom has some scratches around the grommet but the grommet looks to be in great shape. The First picture is the bass drum,second is floor tom and third is the rack tom. Also all drums have scarf joints with wmp? going all the way thru to the insides, although the FT is suspect.

Hope this helps Tom

Hmmmm The shell around the grommet on the 13 appears to have been fondled with, but why? As Purdie said, if the wrap is in the scarf joint, it's original. The other two grommets look just like the insides of my Ludwig kit.

Can you pull a head off your FT and take a pic of the scarf joint for us to see?

Nice kit, by the way! They're gonna sound amazing!

Lynn, is right! It's weird that the 13" looks like somebody messed with the grommet. The floor tom and bass drum grommets look original and intact.

I wouldn't worry about the 13". What you have there is a nice 60's kit. I say polish everything up and enjoy it. In my humble opinion, the kit looks to be original.

John

Here is the scraf joints. I believe the Bass, Floor tom have been rewraped and for some reason, maybe they gave up trying to get to the rack tom grommet? Anyway I,am going to see if the rack tom can be buffed so it will look close to the others. I do believe this kit is a factory original kit.First picture Bass, second rack tom and third is the floor tom,which is hard to see.

I forgot to thank you,al for the opinions and I do defer to your opinions as to the wraps being origional, but I,am still suspicious of the condition of the wrap on the rack tom as opposed to the bass and floor tom. So again thanks.

Tom

TMTM,

I can't really tell from the photos but I tend to agree with Purdie that these are original. The second photo appears to be original to me. If someone rewraps a drum that has the wrap embedded into the scarf joint, generally one of two things happen:

1.) the original wrap is cut back flush with the outer ply and then sanded smooth. Then the new wrap is placed on the drum in the usual fashion which is starting flush on the shell and then overlapping an inch or so.

2.) the original wrap is burned off and that may include the bit that went into the scarf joint. If this happens, whoever did the rewrap should try to fill the void with something, but the odds that you could pull a new wrap into that joint are really slim I would think.

So, if you can see where the original wrap is in the scarf joint and it dead ends into the existing wrap, or there is no wrap in the scarf joint then it is a probably a rewrap. That does not appear to be the case here.

I'm a 100% with tnsquint... I don't get why you insist the drums are re-wraps. As soon as you see the wrap beginning inside the scarf joint on an old Ludwig, you're looking at the wrap that was applied during the lay-up process at the factory. I've never seen -anybody- fake that or re-do it. As was just mentioned, on a re-wrapped drum, the old wrap is cut at the joint, sanded down and the new wrap simply overlaps itself.

Those are some nice -original- drums. Do a careful detailing job and you'll end up with a great sounding vintage kit.

John

As to the advanced yellowing of one drum over another, this seems to be pretty common: especially when one side is affected more than another. Any drum kit exposed to UV light (i.e. part of the full spectrum of wave lengths in sunlight) will "yellow" or fade over time. Quite often the fronts of rack toms and tops of kick drums will suffer the most due to their angle in relation to incoming sunlight. Of course it depends on where a window may be located for the majority of the kit's previous life, but it's just like getting a sunburn. Just because you are out in the sun doesn't mean your entire body gets burned evenly. A good example is a trucker tan where a truck driver's left arm and left side of their face gets darker than the right side.

I think you have scored some fantastic drums. Pinch yourself and realize it's true. Enjoy those jokers while the rest of us sit around and wish we could score a kit like that!

Didn't mean to upset anyone, I respect all of you. I agree that the drums are totally original now. I sanded both tops and bottoms on the Bass and floor tom lightly and you are both correct. It shows that both drum wraps continue completely thru the scraf joints and should of realized this earlier. I stand corrected.

I don't pretend to have the vast knowledge of members of this forum.I was trying to get histories of this set as I am going to give them to a grandson and wanted him to have some idea that all drums are original and the fade on the rack tom is completely normal for the kit if I cannot get the yellowing to match the bass & FT. He will have a copy of our corrospondence to keep as some means to say the drums are original. Whew! sorry for the long sentence and I admit I was probably a PITA.

Thanks: Tom

I am quite sure no one is upset in any way! We just want you to relax and enjoy a once in a lifetime score. And, as is usual, we will just sit back and be jealous of your found treasure and wonder why we never run into a deal like that for less than what it costs to fill up our gas tanks...once. Basically you will end up with a fantastic 60's keystone kit for less than the cost of many MIJ snare drums. We can't wait to see what you do with it. They should look and sound fantastic. Enjoy my friend!! Oh, and post pictures of the process please.

Glad no ones upset thats the last thing I wanted to do. I plan on posting pictures as I go so you,al can tell me what if anything I,am doing wrong.

Tom