I think I am going to have to stop for awhile. At least if I want to stay married. I came across some great deals this past week and I wanted to share them with the group. I paid $1600 for the three drum sets total.

1.) Late 60's Ludwig Gold Strata Standard four piece drum set. 22x14, 12x8, 13x9, 16x16. No snare, but I bought a Standard style Acrolite for $70 on ebay. These are in great shape and sound amazing. A few dings here and there and the original tom arm is gone, but the mounting hardware is still on the bass drum and toms. Original matching inlays on the bass drum hoops. The badges are in the 63,000 range but I cannot find out any dating info on these Ludwig standards so I will take the sellers word for it.

2.) 1971 Ludwig Classics (three ply with re-inforcement rings) in Black Diamond Pearl. 24x14, 13x9, 14x10, 18x16. No snare. These drums are a bit of an anomaly to me for a couple of reasons. First, the 14x10 has a Mahogany inner ply. This same drum has a muffler on the top and bottom of the drum. Lastly, the badge has a serial number in the 904,000 range (which typically indicates 1972) but it also has a Ludwig tag inside the drum that indicates it is from 1971. The 13x9 and 18x16 have serial numbers in the 894-897,000 but have the same tags as the 14x10. These drums are in awesome shape and have the matching inlays etc. At some point, someone put a single Ludwig tom mount on the bass drum. The guy I bought them from says they are all original and that the previous owner only played a four piece and therefore only mounted one tom.

3.) 1978 Ludwig Thermogloss six ply Maple/Poplar/Maple kit with matching rock/concert snare in Maple finish. The sizes are 22x14, 12x8, 13x9, 16x16 with 14x6.5. They have a couple of dings here and there but look great. The snare has the most beautiful sound I have ever heard out of a snare drum. It has the perfect amount of high end crispness with a nice meaty attack. At some point the original Ludwig tom mounting hardware was replaced with a much better Yamaha mounting system. What impact will this have on these drums for future resale? These drums absolutely sing and I cannot believe that I have avoided these six ply shells without re-enforcement rings for so long.