Looks like Black Panther(I believe that's the name), usually seen with the later B/O badges, at least on eBay. Also looks like that drum spent some time in water.

Dan

I don't think it's black panther. I think it's paint or shelf paper or something. It's hard to tell because they are so filthy! Wow! I've never understood how, IF someone wants to sell something like that, they don't spend ONE minute and dust it off a bit, first. I don't see any of the texturing of black panther and I'm not even sure if it was an available finish for keystone badged drums. Didn't it come out in the 70's?

I agree with the cleaning up before you sell it theory as well, but the person does not appear to be a drummer or collector, just someone who got it at a pawn shop I'm sure, so they probably have no clue as to where to begin.

Yes that IS black panther. Black panther first came out in 1968 and lasted in the catalogs until 1975, but I have seen the finish as late as 1979, so I think it could have been special ordered as late as then. How do I know 1968 was the first year? My father ordered a Jazzette set in 1968 NEW, took delivery of it in Jan of 1969 and later passed it on to me one piece at a time when I was a kid. I foolishly stopped playing for a time in the 90's and stored it in a closet, at which time he asked for it back to use as a trade-in along with his other 70's black panther kit on a new Ludwig kit finished in WMP....I foolishly said sure. If I only knew then what I know know......fortunately he kept the supraphonic from that original 1968 Jazzette set and I still have it to this day. He passed away a couple of years ago and left me all of his gear, all of it Ludwig of course. Amazingly I was able to find one of the two kits he traded in back in the 90's on ebay a couple of years ago! I'm still looking for that 1968 Jazzette in black panther though....BTW, I have the receipt for that original kit on file somewhere, so no doublt about it, 1968 was the first year for black panther.

Also, about a year ago I found a 13" tom on ebay that dated from 1969 with a keystone badge, so the myth that black panther was a blue/olive badge offering is false. Oh, and btw......I'm selling off a 1968 22" black panther bass drum in the for sale section, so if anyone is interested, plese contact me.

I emailed the guy on ebay earlier when I spotted this drum and a rack tom he's selling too.....told him DON'T let anyone talk him into lifting the wrap at the seam to see if a rarer finish is underneath......they didn't do that until AFTER the Mod colors were discontinued and NOT selling later on in the mid-70's....in 1968 they were still new, and of all the black panther drums I have found over the years that weren't mine originally, and including mine, I don't think I have ever seen black panther over another color as has been rumored to have been done. If it was done it must have been only on a very rare occasion.

Great info! Thanks for posting that. I stand corrected. Welcome to the forum!