Neither rail looks to be in the right place,so maybe the BD was a virgin............off a double bass kit........

Then,someone went all Swiss cheese on it!

Actually, I have seen this before. It was one "solution" for adding a second tom to a bass drum that was already configured to have a single tom mounted on an offset rail.

The orientation of the left hand rail (from the drummer's seated perspective) is correct. Now...whether or not the second (right hand) rail mount was added at the factory or added at the music store that sold the drum set (as was the practice back then) or if a former owner added it, is the mysterious question.

The two holes at center (12:00 o'clock position) on the bass drum appear to be the questionable ones. I suspect it was to mount a second cymbal arm mounting bracket for a splash cymbal...but that's just a wild guess!

The two holes on the lower right hand side of the bass drum are for a cymbal arm mounting bracket. Could the former owner have taken it off and repositioned it? yes. But one can only guess at this point.

To be more specific, there was never a catalog configuration from that era that included two rail consolettes, so it was a customized job in any case. You've got the original one, an added one and....something else for those two center positioned holes.

Now...watch me go back and re-read the OP and realize I've missed something again! It's been happening a lot lately! heh heh

Nope...I'm sticking to my original story!

I can see the outline around those centered holes and it sure enough looks like a Ludwig mounting bracket to me. And since the second rail was added, the original cymbal arm orientation would have been negated anyway...so I think a former owner took it off and moved it to the center position.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!Car Driving2

What is the serial number?

Thanks gentlemen for the replies...O-lugs, that is very interesting...The outline at the 12 o'clock position does look like it could be a cymbal mount...What puzzles me is that the rail mounts are off center width wise (head to head)...I believe you can see this in the pics I posted...Would the original mount come this way from the factory?

So, O-lugs, you believe that it was originally a single rack tom set-up...I started to suspect this...I was going to start another thread regarding this, but, I might as well mention it here...The 13 x 9 tom has a date of Aug. 10, 1970 stamped inside....The 13 x 11 and the 16 x 16 toms have stickers inside that both have a date of July 17, 1958!! The bass drum as mentioned before, has no date stamped or tag in it...This is one of my "mysteries" I fore-mentioned regarding this kit...If any of the drums were ever rewrapped, then, whomever performed this feat certainly knew what they were doing because all seams match almost perfectly and there are no bubbles or anything in the wrap.

Surface, the serial # of the bass drum is 799158.

I look forward to getting to the bottom of this mystery...I certainly couldn't do it without the help of this Forum!! I would appreciate anymore opinions the Forum may have regarding this thread. Scooby Doobie Doooooooo!!!!

Thanks again gents.

Cheers

The two rails might be correct. The extra holes may have been for two cymbal mounts like on the B.Rich kits. Just a guess.

The rails were usually mounted centered on the lug & closer to the batter head than to the reso head....marko

My suspicion is that the owner added a second railmount and then moved the cymbal mount from its original position to the top/center position since the original position would not work with the second tom in place.

As far as how well the second railmount is centered....don't ask me. People used to do all kinds of "customization" without a lot of forethought.

I'd have to see the interiors of the drums to determine the age. A 1958 shell would have been a mahogany interior. A 70's shell (which would correctly correspond to that wrap) would have a clear maple interior.

Marko52 ~ I agree with you that the rails should be centered between the lugs...In the pic of the shell interior, you can actually see the washer from the right rail overlap the washer from the lug. These rails are mounted closer to the batter side.

O-lugs ~ The interiors of all the toms match this bass drum...They are all clear maple...I will take some pics tomorrow of the other rack and floor toms and tags...If you look closer at the pic of inside the bass shell, you can see that the left rail is more centered between the lugs than the right rail...I just noticed this...I'm now starting to put the pieces together with the Forum's help of course...So, I think that you may be correct O-Lugs...The right rail was added and they moved the cymbal mount to top center to make room for the second tom...It is starting to make sense...

Again, thanks so much for all your help fellas....I appreciate all the opinions and knowledge...There will be more questions arise from this kit, so please stay tuned...

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!! LOL!!

Cheers