The inside ply looks to be the same color of paint used the my luddy 1983 S and L kit,the toms and snare were 4 ply,my drums were black cortex wrap,except the snare was chrome over wood,but still 8 lugs Badges were B/W.

Sometime in the eighties ludwig started offering shells in 4 ply,classic shells were 4 ply and super classic shells were 6 ply or visca versca .

The paint makes me think S/L though,not sure if Ludwig offered the snares in a matching cortex though,and the B/O is throwing me,could be yet just another Luddy anomaly.

I am leaning S/L Series also eamususer. I just found the 84 catalog online and it certainly has every aspect of the S/L except the B/O badge versus the B/W badge. Weird. Thanks for the reply. Anyone else have any insight on the S/L series? Does not seem to be a ton of info out there on them.

I don`t think that badge came with it. It`s got a split grommet.

I've seen that exact same setup, including the B/O badge, many times but they were all wrapped in chrome (plastic) wrap. I suppose it's not too much of a stretch that maybe some got wrapped in Black.

Come to think of it I think there were second generation "Standard" 5 piece sets that had B/O badges and matching snares and only came in Red, Blue, Black, or White cortex. This could be a snare from one of those sets (if they did exist). I'll see if I can find a catalog page...unless I dreamed it.

Looks original to me. Black cortex wrap , early 80's ..

So how many split grommet Ludwig badges left the factory ?

I've had a few drums with the split grommets like that were B/O badge drums. They appeared to be unaltered. Not way to know for sure though.

Mike

Looks like a factory job to me. If the grommet happened to get a tiny split when installed do you think the factory worker noticed (or cared). Even if he did his options would be to spend a whole bunch of time removing it to try again or trashing the whole shell. On a drum that most likely was intended as a lower cost offering? Doubtful. Ludwig's quality control parameters were nowhere near that tight at the time.

Good eye Oddball. That is a little split. I do believe it is original to the drum though. I am guessing this came as a student snare kit or something because it came with an old hard shell Ludwig UFO case and the same single braced (not flat) Ludwig snare stand that is pictured in the 84 catalog. There is actually the exact same snare on eBay right now under "Ludwig jet black maple snare "but the sellers info seems to be all wrong. It is the same though with the B and O badge and even a really close serial. My question is whether it would be considered a Rocket, S/L or what?