I'm really not a vintage collector, but my very first (used) drum set I bought back in 1987 was a Ludwig Black Panther wrap, so it holds a special place in my life. I was just a high school kid who saw it only as 'black', even though I knew it was different than the gloss black most commonly seen. My set was/is all dated 1971 by stickers inside the shells, so even when I got "my first drum set" those Black Panthers were 16 years old then. Now they are almost 40 years old and still in fantastic shape for the most part. I don't gig them because as I got older I learned that they were somewhat a rare finish and I later learned finding add on drums is pretty hard.

My original set I found out many years later was called a Rock Duo in the Ludwig catalogs. 2-20" bass drums, 12", 13", 16" toms, 5x14" Super-Sensitive snare (though the catalog shows it coming standard with a Supra instead). It came with Speedkings and all the vintage hardware as well as 5 soft cases for all the toms and bass drums and some vintage Zildjian A. series cymbals: 21" ride, 20" crash/ride, 14" New Beat hi-hats, and an 18" Paiste Stanople crash. I spent a grand total of $320 on this used set back in 1987.

But, since many collectors don't care much for this color I've been able to find all 14 Black Panther drums I currently own for fairly cheap. I actually picked up a Pro Beat set about a month ago (24", 13", 14", 16", 18" -no snare) which was in for the most part again fantastic shape for its age for under $500. I've heard similar stories from other guys who have equally scored Black Panther sets for dirt cheap.

Well here I am up at 3:30 am. I had a dream about the panthers. i got up to get a drink and take my clamp off and see what it l@@ks like. Well guess what? it worked! The bubbled up spot is no longer bubbled, and I didnt damage the finish with the clamp. There are a few cracks on the inner ply of this shell also.

Tomorrow I will go find some wood filler the right color and fill these cracks. Im not sure what all this will do to the sound of the drum, but I know it will look nice when Im done. Gone back to bed smiling! Nite Y'all.

Here are some pics of the tom after I fixid the bubbled up part. This drum has about a 6" section of it that is discolored and some cracks in the inner ply of the shell. The outter shell appears to be unharmed. I mashed down on the shell and it feels as strong as the rest of the shell. Next i am going to lowes and find some wood filler the right color. I am also trying to figure out a way to restore the color of the wood. Any Ideas guys?

Thanks!

Maybe I'll wrap these in orange mod, using the hi-bond tape method, then they will be the opposite of the rare ones. Just kiddin'

You're doing a great job on those so far!!! :)

Ok Here's the floor tom repair

There's a small gash on the outside of the shell, with very slight damage to the drum finish, however there is much worse damage to the inside of the shell. Notice the inner ply is knocked in pretty good and split outward.

here's pics have a L@@K!

In order to fix this I decided to go find a long reach clamp. I got a 8" reach clamp at Harbour frieght tools for $6.99. next I needed something to protect the finish from the clamp and something to apply even pressure to the inner ply when clamped. I got a few of my drum stackers, cut a 2" piece off of one and stuck weatherstripping around the edge of this piece. Then I taped 2 drum stackers together. (Drum stackers are 1" wide pieces cut from a 14" dia keller shell to put between my snares to let them stack up without looking like the leaning tower of pizza) The crack in the inner shell was big enough to stick a crochet needle in it to provide a little more gap, making it easier to inject the glue into the damaged area. With the shell turned upright, I let it sit for a minute, allowing the glue to flow all the way down the seperated area. The glue started leaing out of the lower crack and I knew it was ready to clamp.

I clamped the sh*t outof it and I waiting for it to dry. I hope it works as well as the one I fixed yesterday. here's more pics have another L@@K

Eureka!!!!!

Looks like you're gettin' there Poppy......I had my doubts at first, but man...thats coming along nicely. I hope these are in round after all this work.....if they end up being slightly out of round still, I would recommend using Ludwig's weathermaster heads as they seem to have the most forgiveness when it comes to this. I've found that Evans, Aquarian and some Remo have issues fitting when the drum is slightly out of round, Remo the most forgiving of the three, Aquarian the least. Ludwig's weathermaster line seems to have a narrow counterhoop that clears just about any oversize or out of round shell and are much more forgiving than any of the "big three" when it comes to shells being out of round.

I have a complete set of pin stripe and fiberskyn heads. ill go test fit them right now.