Do they look good together from the outside? Can you fix that seam? Do they sound good together? Did you pay a fair price for them? If the answers to those questions are "yes", what's the BFD? There are thousands of drum sets with a floor tom that was added later to the original three piece set. I'm not a Ludwig expert or fan. But, I think that the unpainted interior of the floor tom indicates that it's newer than the other two drums.

Take a close look inside the shells..

The date will be ink stamped inside..it's there ..but might be faint...

The clear interior is most likely from the early 70s and the others will have the date stamped inside ...

This kit is worth fixing the wrap on...

Also, I don't remember the Flr tom having (2) top n bottom internal mufflers..?

There's a set of holes near the top and bottom...?

we can get you pretty close on dates with some serial numbers if you don't see any date stamps inside. that floor tom might be a 68. they still had baseball bat mufflers in part of 68 and they also switched to clear maple interiors in 68. the dual mufflers was optional with Ludwig.

mike

Thxs for the info..

Didn't know about the dual mufflers..! Bowing

Look near the seam for the dated stamp. That's where mine are found.

Hard to say for sure without more info. I'm not sure what the big deal would be anyway. If the serial numbers are in the same ballpark they may have shipped together from the factory just as they were changing to clear interiors (late 60's). Ludwig would NOT have made sure they all had matching white interiors. Early 60's drums often had a clear interior bass drum with white interior toms. Another possibility is that a music store put them together so they may have been bought together as a "set" even if they weren't made at the same time. Again, hard to say but nothing to lose sleep over as long as they sound and look good together. Sounds like your friend is just jealous.

I also meant to mention... on the later 60's maple clear interior shells, the wrap is not tucked into the shell at the scarf joint any longer. all of the wrap is on top of the shell. just something else to look for if trying to date it.

mike

It's a good kit. You can get it back close to original pretty easily. Fix it up, polish it up and play it. Congratulations.

It looks to me like someone removed a center post tom mount, and replaced it with a "disappearing" cymbal rod mount with large fender washers to cover the big hole from the center post. A rail consolette was then added. A couple of the mounting plate holes were then filled with bolts and nuts. If it were mine, I'd put internal tone controls back in the drums.