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Ludwig 1966 Combo restoration.

Posts: 763 Threads: 110

Hi There,

Here a post on a restoration project of a Ludwig 1966 Combo.

I'm Belgian and quite new on the forum.

I've been a Ludwig drummer for the past 25 years and always dreamed to get my hands on a vintage sixties kit.

Preferably the kit had to be 1966 (year of my birth) and as it's intended to be a home-playing kit, it needed to be small-sized. (read: "not to loud").

As Jazettes, Downbeats, Club dates or any other vintage Ludwig are very rare and bloody expensive in Europe, I started looking at buying one from the US. I did some work on drums and re-wraps in the past so I don't mind to get my hands dirty.

A few weeks ago I finally bought on Ebay USA a matching bass drum 20" and a 12" tom for a very reasonable price. Needs to be said that the Dollar/Euro conversion makes almost every sale from US sweet.

As you can see in the pictures, it does require a lot of work.

- Missing BD-hoop.

- Missing hardware. (t-rods, claws, L-arm,...)

- Some hardware not original.

- BD inside been painted black

- Paint in bad shape

- etc..

Anyway, last week I started to polish the hardware and to my surprise the BD-lugs are chrome and the 12" tom are nickel. (see previous post)

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=19658

Another surprise during the sanding was to find out that underneath the black paint a Duco Blue-silver finish appeared. Needless to say that the Duco-paint is beyond restore. I have quite some Green-Sparkle Delmar wrap left from a previous project so that's the finish I've chosen for this one.

The good news is that the bearing edges are perfect and that the overall condition of the woodwork and metal is fantastic !

For snare, I'm thinking about a matching pioneer or otherwise a 1960's Acrolite. A matching 14" floortom is definitely planned but waiting on good deal (re-wrap). Some hardware I have already bought, some of it still on it's way or looking for it on Ebay.

Most missing mall-parts were ordered from Len Howe at Classic Drums. http://www.classicdrums.com/

I'll keep you guys informed on the progress and I hopefully get some nice feedbacks.

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Posted on 13 years ago
#1
Posts: 240 Threads: 15

You might want to check the shell thickness before you wrap them. I think the painted shells from that era might not accept heads after being wrapped.

Just saying.

Posted on 13 years ago
#2
Posts: 763 Threads: 110

Waaaw, I believe you are correct,... how could I've missed that !

I was not aware of the fact that the painted shells were different form the wrapped ones.

Just checked it with a piece of wrap and it is indeed very tight.

Any solutions or suggestions here,...

- Tinner (non-Delmar) wrap ?

- Restoring the Duco (will be a hell of a job!)

- paint in another original color ?

- Slightly wider heads ?

thanks for the advice,...

Posted on 13 years ago
#3
Posts: 6287 Threads: 375

I keep reading that Aquarian American Vintage heads may give some relief to this problem....

Kevin
Posted on 13 years ago
#4
Posts: 4009 Threads: 209

From kevins

I keep reading that Aquarian American Vintage heads may give some relief to this problem....

Yes they usually do. And as an added bonus, they sound pretty good too! :D

Posted on 13 years ago
#5
Posts: 763 Threads: 110

Hi Guys,

thank you so much for the valuable input.

I'm considering the 2 options.

1. Restoring the Blue-Silver Duco.

It will be a challenging project with a relatively high chance of faillure. I also couldn't find a lot of technical info on Duco-restorations. I have a few contacts in the spray-paint business so I defenitely would like to give it a go. For a lot of people the Duco's are probably not the most appealing drums around but I kind of like them. It would also make it a "special" kit and closer to the real thing.

2. Re-wrap and go for the Aquarian American Vintage Heads.

An easier solution as I have the wrap already in house. As mentioned before, I did a few rewraps using the Delmar wrap and the 3m Glue. I didn't find it to difficult and the result was very nice. I would like to know however if somebody has the experience with wrapping the old painted Ludwig shells. I've checked my 20" and 12" shells again and even without the wrap on them, a Remo Ambassador head is tight. I wonder if the Aquarians will be wide enough. I would need minimum 1/32 inch around the drum to fit the head. Can somebody tell me how much wider exactly the Aquarians are? Regarding the sound and the looks of the Aquarions I did some researching and they seem to be really good indeed so no worries there.

More inputs and comments are highly appreciated.

Thanks again guys!

Posted on 13 years ago
#6
Posts: 85 Threads: 23

I've rewrapped a kit just like yours.. the 20" works, but the 12" was tight to get the heads back on.. I bought some american vintage's and they are perhaps a little bit bigger, but it's not a big difference.. Actually some remo heads have a bit bigger hoops and I managed to find an ambassador that was even bigger than the aquarians.. the aquarians sounded great though when they were tuned up a bit..

Posted on 13 years ago
#7
Guest

I've heard that to fix the problem of wrap making heads too tight all you need to do is trim the wrap so it stops maybe 5 mm before the edge of the shell. This area is covered by the head and the hoop once the drum is assembled so it is invisible.

Disclaimer: I haven't needed to do this myself, just heard others recommend it.

Posted on 13 years ago
#8
Posts: 763 Threads: 110

Great to get this info from an excact same situation,.. thanks

If I understand you well you say that the Aquarian American Vintage heads fit but are still very tight. In the meantime I also bought a Duco snare to go with the Combo. I guess on the 14" I will run into the same issues.

I've also learned that Ludwig weathermaster might do the trick.

In the meantime I searched the forum further and there is actually quite a lot of info to find on this topic. One member is even stating:

...there's NOTHING particularly wrong with holding the edge back from the edge. That is my standard way of re-wrapping (I call it the vintage Japanese method because, up until Pearl in the '60's, American and UK makers took the wrap to the edges. But after the Japanese makers took off, Tama, Pearl, Yamaha, etc..holding it back a tad became a second industry standard.

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=7718&highlight=aquarian+american+vintage

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=6466&highlight=aquarian+american+vintage

I continue my investigation and keep all options open.

Posted on 13 years ago
#9
Posts: 6583 Threads: 644

Always remember kids:

when you are messing with Duco paint,it is lead based!

Don't just go sanding away on it.................

"Always make sure your front bottom BD lugs clear the ground!"
Posted on 13 years ago
#10
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