Man that floor tom just does not look right to me is it two piece's of shells glued together?? or just a bad day at Ludwig???Mikey

It's actually three pieces. The whole kit is made like this besides the shallower 13" and 14" tom toms. I'm takin it this is normally not the way they're being made?

I've seen it a couple of times, but not many. I had a Tom like that. Pretty wild.

is there any audible difference in sound quality of these shells compared with the "one piece"? I presume they made these shells from wood leftovers that was too small to make a whole drum, and didn't want to through anything away? But this is a whole kit...

This is probably why they went to the granitone interiors, to hide these veneers that were pieced together. There is nothing that would be sonically different, it's all about economics and production. This veneer was likely less expensive. To make the shells out of cheaper, lower quality grades, visually, than to use top grades of venners. This is nothing more than visual. Large, one piece veneers are more expensive than pieced together veneers and the fact that production was at full blown capacity, they used what was easily available and cheaper. This is the beginning of the end of Ludwig as we knew it. These shells would be granitone, then going to 6 ply shells a little later on, then the move to Monroe and offshore...

Yes that is probably it. However, wonder how come the kit is from '78 when they switched to 6-ply in '76? Shouldn't the 3-ply stock be empty by then?

The kit sounds good, but I don't have anything in the same size to compare it with. Presumably the one piece veneer shell should sound better and more powerful?

Don't kill yourself trying to figure out what Ludwig was doing back then, there are alot of mysteries. Since its the interior, I wouldn't sweat it. Like you said, they sound good, and that's all that matters.

I think they may have inserted the granitone interiors for a bit then went back to 3 ply maple interiors then to the 6 ply. That's based on some sets I've owned, with maple interiors and the muffler on the same panel as the badge and grommet. The interiors aren't a really good way to determine age, whereas if the muffler is on the same side as the badge, that indicates a mid to later 70s era prior to the 6 ply shells coming in. That your shell is a Black Panther wrap is irrelevant, although Black Panther has been known to cover ultra-rare wrap colors such as citrus Mod, when they were just sitting on the shelves un-ordered, and they'd wrap the Black Panther over the rare wrap color. Interiors are usually more consistent but not always. I've seen mahogany interiors on the larger drums of the early 70s (16" floor tom, I believe?) instead of Maple. Maybe a strange batch of wood happened in the middle of the 70s, not sure, not sure why they were painted, although it makes sense it would be to cover up something.. Not that it was an acoustic paint that helps the tone? More questions than answers, but I wouldn't value your drums any less than other ones same era, especially a painted interior drum. but the painted interior Ludwig drums from the mid-70s sound just as awesome as the unpainted ones.