I had a 1970 classic kit where all the interiors were maple except the 18" floor. It had granitetone. As far as I know, all the drums were purchased at the same time. I was the 2nd owner.

Hey all, new here.

I have a 1970 Ludwig Standard in red sparkle finish. It has 3-ply african mahogany/poplar/mahogany shells with maple rings. Each shell has the granitone speckled interior, and each is date stamped with an exact date. The badges are also all serialized, with each number's date range matching the ink stamps inside the shells. The shells are all stamped about half-way down the shell in no particular place.

The sizes are...

20x14

14x5 snare

12x8 rack

14x14 floor

16x16 floor

it's in very good condition without any missing parts except for one resonant hoop on the 16" floor tom and a few tension rods here and there. I even have the original heads, top and bottom. It's an amazing sounding kit...I used to work at Guitar Center and no matter how I tuned the new DWs, Yamahas and Pearls, none of them had the tone of my drums.

Please don't be offended, but I'm really curious about your kit. Are you certain those are mahogany? Ludwig maple shells have edges darkened slightly due to age. I'm inclined to believe those are maple/poplar/maple shells rather than mahogany. Ludwig's official word is they should be maple by this time. They switched to maple sometime in the mid 60's and were pushing maple hard by the end of the 60's. The wrapped shells I've seen in the 69-72 area are maple. I don't recall ever coming across a mahogany shell (other than an odd size large bass or extra large floor tom) in that time frame. Of course, I've not seen every shell they put out, so there's always room for Ludwigocity. Please don't take this to mean that I'm doubting your word, I'm just trying to verify that your 70's shells are actually early 60's makeup. That would be pretty cool. Could you take a pic of the bearing edge for me? I am very curious about this one.

Yes a photo would be great and also include the serial numbers of each drum and the date stamp. This way we can keep track of the confirmed Standard serial numbers

David

Actually, some of the "maple/poplar/maple" shells are actually mahogany/poplar/maple....it all depended on the finish the drum was getting. Most shells that were wrapped got an outer ply of mahogany instead of maple if it was a darker color wrap. Natural finish drums and lighter colors like WMP and silver sparkle got maple outer plies.....

Yet another wrinkle. Ok. So, the lighter wraps got maple and the darker wraps got mahogany - give or take on both sides. This actually makes sense to me. The drums I've "unwrapped" have been mostly lighter colors: silver sparkle, wmp, plain white, and the like. The only ones that didn't seem to follow that is the red sparkle and the plain black. Both of those had maple under 'em. Oh, and the blue...that one had maple. By and large, most of the kits I've worked on have been lighter in color. Isn't that odd. I've never really thought about that. I did a lot of the silver sparkles with tired old wrap. Again, note - generally speaking - I pull wrap off of kits where the wrap is worn and has separated from the shell. It literally pulls right off (almost falls off) once the hardware is removed. The glue has long since separated from the wrap and has adhered to the shell only. It's a hard textured coating on the maple. That's all that's left of the adhesive.

No offense taken! The drums are at my band house but I can certainly take a picture of the bearing edge next time I get a chance. But what I can definitely tell you is that these shells are African Mahogany to the max. Dark chocolate brown inner and outer plies.

The catch with this kit is pretty nuts and almost unbelievable. The kit I purchased was a 20/12/14/14 snare setup, all with serial numbers and ink stamps that dated it within 1970...from March to October I believe. A few months after I got the kit, I was looking on eBay for a 16" floor tom and magically, somehow, found one. A Ludwig Standard red sparkle floor tom. When I got it I checked it inside and out and the serial number and ink stamp actually fall *within* the range of the rest of the kit. And the shell is an exact match, Granitone, mahogany and all. I don't know how I ever got so lucky.

And the shells are definitely not rewraps and have no alterations to them. The Granitone is relatively flawless and the wraps actually tuck into the shell under each seam...they'd be impossible to remove.

Hi,

New member just checking in to say hi.

I just purchased a Ludwig Standard S-340 "Super Six" kit on ebay last week.

Unfortunately, needs alot of help. I can't believe all of the great information

just posted recently on this site. I'll be sure to reference any questions here.

I was going through my parts and found the correct Standard pedal and hh stand. I also found a couple of badges. One was really different. It was a standard shape, but had "educator" where standard should be. I also had a nearly identical badge with "combo" written. If I remember correctly the educator was on a trashed set in one of the wood cortex finishes.

Anyway, thanks for the great info, and a nice Ludwig Standard page. I look forward to being an active member.

You snagged a Single Six kit??? Dang! That's very rare. Could you post some pics of it for us? We would love to see it.

I think I've hit rock bottom in my attempts to understand the presumed logic operating behind Ludwig.

I've got a Blue Strata Standard kit. I double-checked and it is indeed maple/pop/maple. I recently located a wrap and date matched 12 inch tom for the kit. It is a mahogany/pop./mahogany shell. The dates are relatively close (a couple of months apart) and the wrap is almost identical to the 13 inch tom. Yet, different shell material.

This sucks! There's just no making sense of what the heck Ludwig was doing behind those closed doors. I think they were doing these things to intentionally mess with our brains. They knew that historians (and geeky drummers) would try to sort this mess out one day. They are laughing their backsides off.