It seems they were really pushing the Jazzette because of all the Roy Haynes ads...I wonder if Ludwig was trying to create a market geared toward jazz musicians with the aim of Ludwig no longer being thought of as rock drums. Maybe this contributed to them purposefully offering wraps for the jazz line that were entirely different than the rock drums. Roy Haynes' walnut? keystone badge jazzette kit was auctioned off by Guernsey's a few years ago...you can still see the flyer and photo through a google search...I wonder who ended up with it?Also, here's some controversy, I seem to remember hearing somewhere that Slingerland actually was the first to make a jazzette kit with an 18x12, and that Roy's suggestion and following product development was when he was a Slingerland endorsee. I'm sure Bud wasn't pleased when he switched to Ludwig!
mlvibes,
VERY interesting about the Slingerland factor in all of this! The plot continues to thicken!
From the look of the grain in that photo, that's mahogany -for sure. I'll wager it's NOT a Cortex wrap, either. It's a very nice-looking mahogany veneer (as in, a Ludwig 3-ply shell where the outer ply is mahogany). I would imagine that since mahogany and maple were two of the woods they used in the 3-ply shells, anyway, they simply adjusted the outer ply as being mahogany or maple and then finished it with lacquer. But...the ad is un-clear (to me) what they actually mean by "mahogany, maple OR lacquer". All I can think is that they were supposed to be natural wood, in any case, but that some of them could be lacquered to make them glossy? Roy's mahogany kit in that PDF doesn't look shiny...Could it have been an un-finished veneer...or a "satin" finish -as opposed to a "lacquer" (gloss) finish?
Link to PDF:
http://www.guernseys.com/Auctions/Jazz/Docs/AddendumFinal.pdf
The 1967 ad clearly states the limited finish options as mahogany or maple -ONLY The PDF of Roy's kit appears to be a natural mahogany finish -which would be in keeping with the ad-information. Roy Haynes undoubtedly was given an extremely-nice example of the mahogany version... See all that vertical "banding" of the grain? That's seen in very nice pieces of mahogany. The color in the PDF appears to be faded -again, possibly because the wood is not protected.
Gretsch already (apparently) had a kit out there with a 14" X 18" bass drum and they were the brand of choice in the jazz world at the time. Ludwig maybe pulled some strings...got Roy Haynes as an endorser and created an ad campaign around him in an attempt to steal some of that market away from Gretsch. Gretsch had Elvin, but Ludwig got Roy and both of those guys were hot commodities in the jazz realm at the time. Roy was probably given carte-blanche at Ludwig.
