Good for you man!!! That is exceptional!

Thanks for posting, a lot of hard detailed work and a great final outcome.

My favorite finish too, and how do they sound?

Cheers

Wow! Great job.

Having 12/13/14/16/24 makes this a very versatile kit.

Who cares if they're classified as a "collector" or "player" kit. It does not matter. I'd classify it as an "awesome" kit that's going to last for another 40+ years.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

- Tim

Well done Commander!

Love to see how hard work pays you so much back!

Wow - thanks for all the positive feedback.

A few more tidbits of info. I got quite a few large classic lugs from blairindrums here on the forum and they were EXCELLENT. I bought them a long time ago and just opened the bags a week ago. I was amazed at how clean and nice they were right out of the bag. Great transaction.

Also - not sure if anyone noticed but the snare drum is now a 10 lugger. I have several other Ludwig snares - clear Vistalite, 70's Suprahonic and a 90's Black Beauty all 10 lug snares. I just couldn't go to all the trouble and end up with an 8 lug snare at the end of it. I know its crazy.

Question - did Ludwig ever make 10 lug wooden snares in the 70's? I assume not but its not really a huge deal either way. Just curious more than anything else.

Here is the snare after the hardware was re-installed.

Outstanding !!! Simply Outstanding !!! Beautiful kit.

I love the way you transformed the concert toms into double headed toms.

The concert toms from that era had re-rings and bearing edges on both sides.

Not like the later ones that had a metal strip around the bottom.

My 15" and 16" concert toms are like yours and I put rims on them and useing a tama low tom stand for a double floor tom set up.. Now I am thinking. would it be worth it to me to convert those to double headed toms. Your floor tom looks great and am sure it sounds fantastic. would I improve and add value or ruin them? I don't think those toms are all that collectable?? but I do hate to alter them from original. I bet they would sound better though.

What's wrong with 8 lug snares?? Some of the best sounding ones have 8 lugs... You can hear more of the shell rather than the hardware.

Nice transformation however!

(on the flip side I heard a 12 lug Montineri that was ridiculous!)

Looks like you did I nice job. I know thats a lot of work I have done a few my self. I tend to do the edges before installing the hardware just keeps everything cleaner. Enjoy them

Jumping2

The 8 lug Jazz Fest snares are great snares no question. Honestly doing the snare as a 10 lug vs 8 lug was the toughest decision of the whole project.

In the end it all worked out. It's a great sounding snare and I will keep it for a long time.

I would like to post some audio of the kit when I get a chance. I'm really happy with the sound overall. The toms are warm and very nice. The snare has a great pop to it and the bass drum is punchy and full sounding.