Possibly 80's Rockers.

Josh - You don't know Mike, but you just heard back from one of our Ludwig experts. You can pretty much take what he tells you to the bank.

Welcome to the forum.

John

Whew...no,no,no..lol! Thanks John. I do try to keep up with the stuff. But I don't have this era covered like I would want to. Someone will know for sure though.

I'm trying to put a value on them to sell them. I just can't find anything with serial numbers with these badges.

This from Reverb.com. Not sure of the accuracy.

The Ludwig Timeline pic in ProDrum Shop shows the B&W Badge starting somewhere in the 70's.

But it seems that Mr. Layton's assessment is most likely correct,

as he is, as they say, a smart dude.

Reverb says:

The “Black & White” badge was introduced with Ludwig’s Rocker series which ran from 1984 through the mid '90s. These badges also adorned the aluminum Acrolite snare from 1994 to the mid 2000s, when the drum featured a Black Galaxy Sparkle finish.

Found this in Old DFO Posts.

"In the 70s you could order your drums/ snares/ Stainless Steel kits with black and white instead of the blue and olive."

I read reports of guys in the 70's ordering their kit with Black and Silver Badges. Apparently there were choices of Badge Colors back then.

I'm not sure where that information comes from but I do not recall that being an option nor have I ever seen a higher end Ludwig model with the black and white badge. Looking through my pile of 80's Ludwig catalogs and flyers it appears that the B/W badge first pops up around 1984 on a series called Ludwig S/L and also Ludwig Rockers. This was also around the same time as the B/O badge was discontinued. Prior to that time frame Ludwig's lower priced offerings used either the Regular B/O badge or a variation of the Standard line type badges. The B/W badge seems to have been brought about to differentiate lower priced offerings from Ludwig' s more expensive lines.

I have seen Stainless drums with all silver badges ( missing the blue and olive screening). I haven't seen any with the B/W badges though, although there were chrome wrapped Rockers that would look similar.

I can't say that a B/W badge NEVER found it's way onto a top of the line Ludwig ( because you can never say never, especially when you're talking about Ludwig) but generally speaking if you see the B/W version of the badge you should figure you're looking at less expensive instruments, although some of the early Rockers were quite decent drums.

I only ever associated the B&W badge with the Rocker series. Everything KO said sounds spot-on to me. The good news for the original poster is... the Rocker series used the same shells that were being used on the high end kits. The only difference as far as I know is the hardware. The high end kits used the classic Ludwig lugs and the Rocker series used cheaper/lighter imports. Some guys swear that the lighter lugs and hardware allow the drums to resonate better. Who knows? I do know that the shells in the Rocker series were the same as the ones used in the high end stuff. Mike Layton will correct me if I'm wrong... Mikey? What say you?

John

I rewrapped this drum, which had some messed up chrome wrap on it. I always thought this was kind of cool.....a pointed B&W badge. :cool: