That's funny , Italy has a strong tradition of pearl diving.

I seem to recall that it had something to do with the pearl wraps as well. I have some wmp toms with the rivets. Aside from the silver sparkle that vibes mentioned, are there any other wraps you guys have seen rivets on? I once had a white cortex kit from this era, and no rivets.

I have a couple of COW orphans from that time period with the rivets.

From what I understood from the Ludwig Book (p. 54), the rivets were used because OSHA wouldn't allow Ludwig to use the glue. HOWEVER, the chrome wrap on mine had both the rivets AND were glued down (and believe me, that metal wrap is a real pain to get off when it's glued down!).

Bill

I'm not trying to refute what you, or anyone else, has said on this subject, because what I am about to tell you is hearsay. I recently spoke to a man about this. This man is a vintage parts distributor who says he knows Bill Ludwig (I'm guessing Bill III) personally. He says he asked about it and that Bill told him that for a good while Ludwig was having LOTS of wrap separation problems and, out of frustration, Bill himself told his crew something close to, "I don't care what you have to do to make it hold! Put rivets on the (blasphemous curse withheld) things!" The gentleman pointed out, as we all know, that even this didn't solve the problem. If this is true, I could see why they wouldn't want it going in the book.

Again, this is hearsay, but I have no reason to doubt this man unless someone else knows Mr. Ludwig and refutes this story.

I have also always heard that the glue that worked was real nasty stuff, and with the advent of environmental/workplace safety regulations couldn't be used anymore. Now, all pearls shrink with time, so either the good glue held it well enough that it could only shrink right by the seams instead of all the way around, or maybe the Italian factories were dealing with being forced to use less unpleasant chemicals that resulted in a few years of extra-shrinky material before they sorted it all out.

It's not just the pearl wraps... the post above said he has a silver sparkle with rivets and I have a wine silk wrap with rivets. My wrap is pulling away from the rivets.

My Sky Blue Pearl kit has rivets. They have shrunk a little but still intact and it doesn't look like they will shrink more soon.

Eric Carr of KISS had a chrome o wood set on the animalize tour in 1984/85 if you watch videos of his drum solo you can see the rivets. I had thought it was only on cow drums, maybe they kept on doing it on the cow drum because the metal wanted to unravel?

Reminds me of the Three Stooges episode "How High Is up?" where they are hired to be riveters on the 100th floor of a skyscraper being built. According to Moe..."three of the best riveters who ever riveted!"..

Drum maker with a rivet gun? A bad idea :(

ludwig was using contact cement like all other manufacturers, the fire marshal came into the Chigago plant and could smell it all over the plant. at any time it could ignite burning down the plant. and according to the fire marshal all of Chigago (again) too. so they had to stop using it right away. having no alternative but to come up with a quick way to fasten the wrap. they used rivets. then moved the plant to Monroe NC. and started doing the contact cement thing again. they had a hard time finding a place that would let them continue using contact cement again. this is what i belive was the story. so your drums are most likely authentic. i also belive this happened late 1979 untill late 1980,. not too clear on these dates. i think it maybe very close.