And finally the rack tom... Lots of adhesive residue. I'm not sure why the part where the drum shell 'joins' itself is lighter coloured than the rest?! The mounting bracket has one clean hole and one 'wide' hole as if there's been another type of bracket on it before. Comparing with Luwdig rack tom's I've seen photo's of online, it seems strange that the muffler fixing holes are directly above what I assume is the hole where the badge grommet would have been. !??!

It's tough to tell from the photos, but your floor tom looks like it has a maple outer ply. The bass and rack have mahogany outer plies. Both setups were standard for Ludwig at different times.

I've seen Ludwig toms with the mufflers directly above the badges, though I don't know enough about Ludwig to know what that tells us about the drum.

Have you chosen a wrap for it?

I forgot to mention the inner plies. All three of your drums have a maple inner ply. The middle ply on all three would be poplar. (I'm sure Ludwig-Dude will correct me if I'm wrong here.) So your bass and rack are maple/poplar/mahogany, and it looks like your floor is maple/poplar/maple.

There's not much collector's value here given the rewrapping and drilling, so I wouldn't go to great lengths to find period-correct screws, etc., but those drums are going to sound and look great when you're done with them. Might I suggest red sparkle? :)

Thanks for your reply section2. I had actually just been reading about the use of maple/poplar/maple and maple/poplar/mahogany and thought that perhaps the floor tom was maple on the outside, but the other two mahogany! :-)

I haven't decided definitely what I'm doing wrap-wise. One option is what I've discussed on this thread here: (http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=19620). It would be a bit sacreligious perhaps if not for the fact that the kit seems to be such a frankenstein already.

What do you think about that ugly repair job on the top of the bass drum where the central tom mount once was? I'm thinking I'd like to make that better, but not quite sure how to go about it.

Well, that would definitely be an interesting way to finish the drums. I love the look and vibe of vintage drum finishes, so I'd be inclined to go with a classic wrap like a sparkle or pearl... but they're your drums, and you don't have to worry about collector's value at this point, so I say choose a finish that makes you happy! :)

Enjoy those drums.