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Vintage Club Date Kit - Mystery Shell Last viewed: 1 hour ago

Posts: 4 Threads: 1

Greetings! I'm new to this forum. Thanks for having me.

About nine years ago I picked up a vintage Ludwig Club Date kit, or at least so it seemed. This being my first vintage kit purchase, I was pretty naive and didn't really know what I was looking at but I bought them anyway. Shorty after I bought these drums I determined they had been re-wrapped, but apart from that it appeared to me that the kit was mostly original. This kit has mostly been sitting un-played for all these years but I'm not in the process now of refurbishing it. The wrap was lifting significantly at the seams and cracked in a couple of places, so I pulled it off. What I found was interesting. I will describe each drum and provide photos.

The 14" floor tom seems the most original of the group. There are no extra holes. It had the original "baseball bat" muffler, and the "quick release" floor tom legs and brackets. When the wrap came off I found a shell that was partly burned, in only one area, which I assume happened when the original wrap was removed ( I assume this because this happened to me one time when removing drum wrap with a heat gun... that wrap and/or the adhesive is very flammable in case you don't know). The seam in the shell where the original wrap was inserted is kind of a mess, but the shell is round and in tact. There are remnants of the original wrap, which looks like it was Champagne sparkle.

The 12" tom is in the worst shape. It looks like maybe removing the old wrap caused an issue at the seam of the shell because there is a bunch of putty or bondo covering that whole area. The original muffler was removed and the holes were filled. The original holes for the tom mounting bracket were also filled... but then new holes were drilled and the bracket was installed right next to the original location. Weird. Also, one lug has two pairs of holes... the lug that would have been over the seam, where the damage was repaired. It actually looks like they went to drill new holes and somehow got the layout wrong. So there's an extra set of holes about 1/2" from the correct location. *sigh* I can see that the original wrap was red sparkle.

The 20" kick drum is the mystery. It has no extra holes and appears to have all the original hardware. It has the "telescoping spurs" and the "rail consolette" tom mount, as well as the horrible little cymbal mount (it looks like a smaller version of the spur mount). The wrap was obviously not original because it perfectly matched the toms and it was coming off at the seams in the same way as the toms. I unwrapped the kick drum today and to my surprise the shell doesn't match the others at all. It's a very different color, first of all (see photos), and I would guess that the shell isn't as old. It's of similar construction, meaning that it's a thin shell with re-enforcement hoops, but it doesn't look as though this drum was re-wrapped. It wasn't assembled with the wrap tucked into the seam, and there isn't any evidence that a different wrap was ever on this drum. There aren't any extra holes on this shell, which tells me that if this wasn't originally a Ludwig Club Date then it likely never had any hardware on it.

So I'm guessing that an original Club Date kick was damaged beyond repair and someone pulled the hardware and installed it onto this shell. That being said, I wouldn't guess that this shell is a "modern" replacement. I'm no expert, though. I did notice that the the seam of the shell wasn't sanded smooth, which I find interesting. There is a little lip at the seam, which may be visible in the photo. If one were to lacquer this shell you would first have to sand that edge smooth. I don't know what that indicates, but I wouldn't expect a new shell to be sold this way.

I don't have dreams of a full restoration here. Obviously there isn't any collectible value in these, so I plan to refurbish it as a players kit. I will fill the extra holes before re-wrapping. I will remove the original tom mount, kick spurs, and floor tom legs/brackets. I find this hardware borderline useless and I'll replace it with modern equivalents. I won't replace the tom mount and opt for using a snare stand. I'm only posting here because I'm curious about the kick drum. Anybody have any ideas? Fortunately it sounds great to me. Whatever the origin of the shell, it's in great shape and perfectly usable.

[IMG]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/mtmelvin/Drums/IMG_7365.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/mtmelvin/Drums/IMG_7367.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/mtmelvin/Drums/IMG_7368.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/mtmelvin/Drums/IMG_7363.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/mtmelvin/Drums/IMG_7362.jpg[/IMG]

Posted on 8 years ago
#1
Posts: 2010 Threads: 19

Ludwig would use mahogany and maple plies interchangeably depending on what they had on hand. They would also mix shells with these different layups into kits. That appears to be a Ludwig bass drum, it just happens to have a maple exterior ply. The lip at the seam is normal. The white paint on the interiors was used so either type of interior ply would still match in appearance.

At the time no one was sweating these sorts of details. If the finished drum looked nice and sounded okay that was good enough for most everyone.

Posted on 8 years ago
#2
Posts: 4 Threads: 1

Interesting. But what about the wrap not being tucked into the seam of the shell? I thought that was typical of all Ludwig shells of this era.

Posted on 8 years ago
#3
Posts: 621 Threads: 41

Generally, Ludwig used a mahogany exterior veneer if the were gonna get wrapped, & a maple outer veneer if they were gonna get painted. Looks like a duco finished Ludwig bass to me. Could very well be the same age as the others......marko

Posted on 8 years ago
#4
Posts: 2010 Threads: 19

From mtmelvin

Interesting. But what about the wrap not being tucked into the seam of the shell? I thought that was typical of all Ludwig shells of this era.

Yeah, they typically used the maple exteriors for drums that were to be painted and mahogany for drums intended to be wrapped but they didn't always stick to that. Bass drums require two pieces of wrap so they end up a bit differently than smaller drums but the wrap should have still gone into the seam. If this bass drum was originally painted then adding wrap may make heads fit tight.

Looking at your pictures on a bigger screen now I'm not sure that the outer ply on your bass drum is maple or just a lighter mahogany. Sometimes the mahogany was not the deep red brown that your other shells exhibit. Either way it's pretty apparent that all three shells are Ludwig. Whether they originally came together as a set is hard to say but they appear to be of roughly the same era.

One way to remove stubborn vintage wrap is to simply light it on fire and let it burn off. The acetate based wraps burn almost like gasoline and they burn so fast they don't really damage the shell to any great degree but you need to put out the fire before it gets to the seam. From the looks of your drums I'd guess that is what was done here, at least on the toms. Not an ideal method but it does get the job done.

Posted on 8 years ago
#5
Posts: 4 Threads: 1

Ah, this makes sense. Now that you mention it the bass drum heads did seem a little tight when I pulled them off. Mystery solved! I'm a little surprised that I can't see any evidence that the shell was ever painted.

Thank you for the replies!

Posted on 8 years ago
#6
Posts: 2010 Threads: 19

From mtmelvin

Ah, this makes sense. Now that you mention it the bass drum heads did seem a little tight when I pulled them off. Mystery solved! I'm a little surprised that I can't see any evidence that the shell was ever painted.Thank you for the replies!

Yes, the shells were formed with the wrap already glued onto the plywood. Since they form to the outside of the mold you end up with the same outside diameter whether there is wrap or not. So the maple exterior shells that were intended to be painted are the same outer diameter as a wrapped shell, wrap included. When you add a layer of wrap to one of those it's the same as if you added a new layer of wrap on top of the old wrap of a wrapped shell. It's probably less of a problem with bass drums than it is with snares and toms. There are work-arounds like cutting the wrap back near the edges. Just something to be aware of. If the bass was originally painted (is that a smooth maple outer ply? Looks like it might be rougher, more porous, lighter colored mahogany) then obviously these didn't start out as a factory set.

Posted on 8 years ago
#7
Posts: 4 Threads: 1

Agreed, this was very obviously pieced together from mismatched drums. I can see evidence of the original wrap colors on the toms. The 12" tom was red sparkle and the 14" floor was champagne or gold sparkle. The kick was likely painted so these came from three different kits. I'm not entirely disappointed about that. Like I said I'm planning to make this a players kit. These three drums came with an old Slingerland Super Sound King snare, an old Speed King pedal (which I promptly sold), a hi-hat stand and an old thin pair of 15" hi-hats. All in all it was a decent purchase.

Posted on 8 years ago
#8
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