It looks to be a real Ludwig. If it really is one then it has most likey been recovered with that WMP and the badges have been possibly moved into alternate locations. It's doesn't look to bad and hopefully the price is right.

If the set is truly a "super classic" then the shells will be four plies of staggered maple. They may have been finished offering a 4-ply shell in 1995 though. Ludwigs most popular shell was just called a classic shell and it was made with 6 plys of staggered maple until Ludwig changed the formula to make the classic maple shell(a nine ply shell) in 1997. Ludwig again changed the shell lay-up around 2009 I think(my dates could be off on this) and currently the shell is a 7-ply maple shell.

Ludwig also did not offer a bass drum hoop with an inlay in it in 1995 as the hoops were all solid. I think they started doing that again in 1997 along with the new classic maple design. almost all the badges on classic maple drums are higher up on the toms. A floor tom will have it in the upper part of the shell and the small toms have them centered up more.

The reason to this day why Ludwig's badges are up higher on toms goes back to 1969 with the introduction of the blue/olive badge. That badge looked better when it was seated higher than a keystone badge(that was dead center on a small tom) and when Ludwig phased out the B/O badges around 1985, they kept the hole posistion the same. Ludwig's bass drum badges were also moved to the back of the bass drum in the late 70's/early 80's with the invention of modular hardware as the giant triangular mount that sat on the bass drum forced Ludwig to reposistion the badge to the back of the bass drum. It used to be towards the front for years and now that modular mounts are not used much, Ludwig still keeps the standard place for the bass drum badge at the back. I think only recently have they started allowing customers to put it at the front like the older ones.

Sorry to be so long winded but what it looks to me like you are looking at is a mid 90's classic set(a lot of Monroe era Ludwigs are date stamped though the stamping can often times be very sloppy and hard to read) that someone has done a complete make over on. If you look inside each shell, I would check for extra holes(possibly where a badge was moved to a lower spot) and I would count the plys of wood inside. It really does'nt look to be a bad set and if the price is right and the wrap job was done nicely then it might be a pretty decent set. If those are in fact Ludwig shells, they should sound great too. Let us know what you find. You might also want to ask the seller if they know if the wrap was glued down all the way around.

Lots of great info there Kurt, as always!

Mike

Thanks a lot for the help.

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I can´t really find the extra holes where the badges once were!

The toms have the inscription of the date when were manufactured. Is this normal in Ludwig Kits?

The 1995 have the Bass drum hole for the tom holder and the ride holder? I´m asking this because I can´t find another example of a 1995 drum kit with those holes.

I asked the seller the serial number, do you think with that I can have the certain that I´m buying a real Ludwig?

Once again, many thanks.

That's a genuine Ludwig. The Date stamp is something that they have been doing as far back as I can recall. If there are no extra holes, then the grommets / badges are where they were placed by the factory. With regard to the bass mount, those could have been features someone specifically wanted when they ordered the kit. If you go direct to the manufacturer you can get really anything you want done. Honestly I haven't seen many people try and " fake " a newer Ludwig kit. It's vintage gear that people try and pass as original. At least from what I've seen. Also - found two kits that are from '95 online. One is dead exact to this one, the other is the same sans the color and cymbal mount. So They are 100%.

Yes, keep in mind you could order up almost any combination you wanted as far as drum sizes and mounting hardware so just because you can't find the exact same thing in a catalog does not mean they must be "fakes".

These look legit to me.

Looks like somebody ordered it with the badges in the center and inlaid hoops were added.

Yeah, I remember the classic tom mount and the cymbal holder being put on ludwigs around the time that the Beatles anthology came out.

Everyone was commenting on how it was "just like Ringo's kit" and I was the naysayer *****ing about the 1" hole in the shell the fat shells, solid black hoops and curved Spurs.

The kit on the right is my old kit! I bought it used. The wrap was very brittle and had a couple of splits in it.

I hate to burst everybody's bubble, but I believe that those are NOT genuine Ludwig drums. Genuine hardware, yes. Shells, I doubt it. Too many things don't add up. Yes it may be a rewrap, however, the badge positioning doesn't make sense. Also, the date stamp is very clear, most date stamps didn't read so very clear as this one does. By this time that they are supposed to be from Ludwig had gone away from the traditional date stamp to a 3-digit date code system. The latest I've seen a traditional date stamp inside a Ludwig shell was 1988. Around 1990 they went to the three digit letter/number code. They still do that to this day.

Another point, the floor tom leg brackets have the later style spacer block under them. Ludwig didn't start doing that until around 1997-1998, which is also the way they are offered to this day if you order the classic legs. The position of the rack tom mount bracket is too high up, it should be more to the center of the shell, more evenly spaced.

Do the badges have serial numbers and are they close in sequence? If they have no serial numbers, then that's a sure tip off that they are not genuine. Also, in 1993 there should be two badges on the rack tom, one with serial number, one without. Ludwig did this for left or right players positioning so that the badge would always be in the front. If there is only one, and again, no serial number, I would suspect them as fakes.

My guess is that these are Keller shells with Ludwig hardware fitted to them.

Now I wonder are these both the same kit then. Because looking at both photos they both look the same, sans the different bass drum head. So unless there is more than one of these making them either legit or multiple fakes, or this is the same kit. And if so, since you had at least one of these, what was the date stamp like? Did it have the same floor tom brackets as the OP's?