Start mulling over this little page.

Click Here

It is spotty at best, but I will go through my literature and fill in the pieces...

Send me any photos you might have...

David

Ok I just added the 71 and 73 scans, almost exactly the same...

David

Cool!!!!!

Feel free to use this scan of a ludwig ad with Roy Haynes:

http://69.6.216.143/roy_jazzette.jpg

and this clip that I downloaded to youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvDkZ-paj5o

Great stuff, fellows! :)

I just cannot figure out what's going on with the catalogs offering only limited finish options for the Jazzette. Obviously, mlvibes' Jazzettes and my Jazzettes do not fall under any of the offered finish options. I have seen ONE (what I thought was) "Walnut Cortex" -years ago....somewhere online. It was beat up pretty badly.

Oh, yeah....another forum member here, (b.d. bop AKA Mark Polis) also owns a BEAUTIFUL (and I mean BEAUTIFUL) BLACK Cortex Jazzette from the early 70's (pointy B/O badge). There's a good story behind that one, too. It came with a matching, chrome Bebop snare! In fact...He already MIGHT have posted a picture of that kit somewhere in one of the galleries here!

Do any of you guys know Mark from "other" forums? I know he posts here....but VERY rarely. I'll try to dig him up, but if any of you know him at "other" forums, then please let him know about our "Jazzette section"! :)

Aaahhh! Here it is! :

http://www.vintagesnaredrums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2135&d=1182510266

I'm going to send Mark an email and see if I can't get him on board with this. Maybe he'll post some more pictures.Burger Kin

It is odd about the finishes. If you look at the page for ordering single pieces you can order a 14x18 in any color. I think Ludwig did a lot more than the catalogs tell us. I know someone who has a jazzette in the mohogany finish. That is the only jazzette I have seen that had the cataloged factory finish. All the other ones have been wraps. Wierd.

I'm going to add a link on the home page for the Jazzette stuff prior to me forgetting about it.

If anyone has an addition and or a set to add, let me know

David

Do you guys have 12 x 18" or 14 x 18" basses??

12 X 18 -That's what designates it as a Jazzette.Burger Kin

I have been corresponding with vintage guru, Steve Maxwell about this. According to him, the "official" Jazzette was either mahogany lacquer or maple lacquer and that was it -as far as the catalog ads....BUT, since the "baby" bass drum could be ordered separately in ANY finish, I suspect that lots of (otherwise) Downbeat kits were getting "down-sized" with the 12 X 18 and, thus becoming Jazzettes. In fact, what I thought I remembered seeing as a Jazzette kit with a red sparkle Downbeat snare drum so many years ago, MAY have actually been a Downbeat model drum set with a matching Downbeat snare drum (because, apparently, the Downbeat SNARE drum was an option that was listed for the Downbeat KIT -Go figure!) The fact that my Downbeat snare's badge numbers indicate a 1966 date (no ink stamp), there would have been no way the drum could have been offered as a matching snare to a 1967 12 X 18 bass drum and toms...Oh, man...I'm going to have to start re-writing!

And, in addition to that, Steve confirmed that the Jazzette came standard with a Supra. But, the black Cortex Jazzette that forum member b.d.bop USED to own was a matched kit that came with a chrome Jazz Combo.

I can tell you for a definite fact....the 1969 Jazzette kit I bought from forum member brett013 is legit all the way -date stamps, badge numbers -everything! The provenance of the kit is that it was purchased bya family for their child...who quickly lost interest in them...they went into "storage" and then years later were sold to brett013's wife for THIRTY DOLLARS!!! at a yard sale. Now, they are mine. This confirms to me that sometime between 1967 and 1969, they were sold as matched sets. They were probably sent to various music stores that way from the factory. They just didn't bother to change the ad in the catalog, that's all. I don't think anyone's parents would custom-order a special Jazzette in red sparkle wrap. I suspect, the parents went into the music store one day and the drums were there and they bought them.

wflkurt is right! The catalogs did not list everything that was going on with the Jazzette...and that makes finding documented examples directly from Ludwig very difficult. Obviously we all have Jazzette kits with wrapped finishes and matching numbers...so how could it be that the Jazzette was not offered in those finish options? Obviously, they were offered that way -just not in the catalog.

I think the new "mission" (should we decide to accept it Burger Kin ) is to locate a catalog version of a Jazzette -in essence, one that is matched and in either the mahogany or the maple lacquer finish. It might really be a "Mission Impossible"...but maybe not.