It's been somewhat slower times for me in buying and selling as I have focused on family, work and most importantly playing. I recently had sold off a few kits and was on the hunt for something different. In a recent Not So Modern Drummer article written by Mark he wrote an excellent review of the often snubbed but in my opinion great line of Ludwig drums.
I previously had owned a couple Standard series snare drums which are for all intensive purposes the same as a jazz festival. Recently on the hunt I found a super cheap aluminum Standard snare.
Looking furtherI saw a couple nice kits at Guitar Center. One with a matching snare but no hardware in NC and another with all the hardware but no snare. Being the very particular collector I am now I opted for the kit with all the hardware.
The sizes are the same as downbeat; 12 14 20. To my surprise I landed a near catalog kit except for the snare stand.
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XhY8_4XL22w/VxrMQ7rgyYI/AAAAAAAAElU/vh9Z0VMxmRgGgKZu6weNJuIA_m791_-PQCCo/s800/IMG_20160422_141230%257E2.jpg[/IMG]
I will post more pictures of the rest of the kit setup but it will look more or less like this:
[IMG]http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/ludwig_sets/standard/1968-4.jpg[/IMG]
What was great about this kit was that only one head was non factory. There was not a single modification to this kit, the wrap was vibrant and tight and it honestly seemed like it was not played that often. All the tags that give it a proper date from the period are present.
I spent about 5 hours really just cleaning the hardware as the wrap was so nice. After all the nice kits I have had I have realized the hunt and restoration of kits is the most fun part of this for me.
Manny