Drums of that era were fully a matter of mass production. As Hobbs found out recently, there are many occasions where significant issues are revealed. If you can see something clearly wrong with the edges, have your guy check them on his table. If there's nothing wrong, end of story. If there is something there, consider whether or not to make the adjustment.

I've had two Rogers kits from the early Fullerton era over the years that had poorly cut edges, and have seen a number of them from Cleveland to the end of Fullerton that had significant issues. One set I sold because I didn't have a resource to correct them. By the time the second one showed up, a forum member (IDrum4Fun), clued me in to a great shop in CA, so I had the second set corrected and I'm really glad I did. It was a $900 dollar set of red onyx Citadel with 22,13,16 layout. The edges are awesome, and I guarantee there was no impact on the value of the set. In fact, if anything, the value is higher because the edges are perfect now. If I'd had to sell them with bad edges, it would have been an issue. Now I can say they are like custom built Dynasonic edges. If they don't want a modified drum, they probably weren't going to want an untouched vintage with bad edges either.

I've seen plenty of edges damaged from using the drums without bottom heads or for other reasons. If edges are in fact bad, then the vintage value is impacted right out the gate. So I say, correct them if needed, unless perhaps in the case they are an extremely rare drum with a famous name attached to them by ownership or something like that.

Ludwig standards don't fall into the extremely rare category no matter how you cut it. The ones you have are beautiful, but you've already revealed it's a $300 set of drums. So again, if something is wrong and is affecting the sound, in my view you'd to deal with it.

To me it's like having a '63 Corvette split window coupe with the split windows broken out. Would I fix the windows? Da_n right I would.

You guys have been amazing! It's cool to actually be part of a conversation instead of just reading! The edges don't sound too bad, not like how my Superstars did. The heads both batter and reso are way pitted but it still has a very decent sound, so I'm going to order new heads and go that route, I'm thinking vintage ambassadors on top, coated ambassadors bottom and a powerstroke 3 on the kick, Simon Phillips towel muffling.

By the way fishwaltz, where do you find a 14 tom?!

Here it is set up, thank you guys for your advice!

I see your point there too! I like that logic, I'll put some heads on it, the condition of the kit is amazing, I have seen a few standards jacked up and beaten which is why it has taken me awhile to find a set. This one is good though, is it perfect? No but we will see once I put some heads on it, the sound is already good with these bad heads so I can't wait!

One thing is clear, those strata finishes on the Standards were not standard and they are very appealing. I've been tempted several times to grab either the color you have or the red one of a similar pattern.

One thing I learned owning a black set is that they used the same drill jig for both the standard and classic lug. I had the Rocker Standards in the late 90's and the only difference I could detect was the lugs shape and the badge. Shell was clear interior maple with no glue ring, spurs on the bass were same and the double tom mount was the same as had been used by Ludwig on their classic sets. As badge engineering goes, they were Chevy's and Classics were Buicks.

Yeah I wanted them so bad because they used the same shells as the super classics, except I could pick this one up for 300! Had to drive 3 hours though

I dig the avocado strata, but I think red would be nice, or a sparkle, blue strata is nice, I like the avocado finish, but I think I like those more

I also haven't decided if I will do the lug conversion yet, I have to fix or replace the tom mount first, it even came with the old drum key! Along with some minor touch ups, I'll see how I'm feeling in a few weeks, or more like how my wallet is

If the drums sound bad then sure re-edge them. I have had a few of my vintage kits re-edged. When I did I leveled the shells and gave them the same factory edge. The difference is that I could actually QC each and every drum. In the case of my first Ludwig restoration some of the edges were really bad for the same reasons mentioned here (reso heads left off and so forth).

On my Gretsch kit I am 100% pleased with the results. With the new edges the heads literally just fell right on and tuning was much easier. Since I gave them all the factory edges I don't think I affected mojo much and they are being played now on a regular basis.

I will echo what others here have said; if the edges are fine and the drums tune up and sound ok then leave them alone. No reason to create work unless you are not happy with what you hear.

I would keep them as-is as far as lugs. The Standard lugs don't scream Ludwig, but they aren't bad quality, and they do the job well.

As far as the tom mount, my Standards came without the mounting arm, and so I ended up suspending my rack tom off a stand. On top of feeling a bit more secure, I noticed that the bass drum (on my set at least) seemed to choke up a little with anything mounted in the mounting base.

While it appears that disaster has been staved off by the committee convincing you not to recut the edges, let me reiterate: Not only should you not cut them, there's probably no need to cut them. I got my Standards in terrible condition, with the re-rings separating from the main plies, ended up gluing the re-rings back on and then lightly sanding the edges (and I do mean lightly). They sound like a million bucks again. These are pretty forgiving drums and will probably sound very good unless there's major damage to a bearing edge -- and even then, they may surprise you!

So I removed the heads to dust of the kit before I put new heads out on. I was inspecting the edges, for the most part they are good, there is some flattening around parts of the edges but I'm just going to see how that sounds for now. Also the snare bed is completely flat, is that ok?

And finally, what to do about this guy? And sorry the pictures are upside down, I'm a noob and don't know why that is happening....

and take `em off the ceiling !i