Attached are photos of my Ludwig Hammered Bronze Supraphonic with serial number 3112586.
The B stamp above the round muffler knob is stamped as you would normally see a B. I have read some traffic here on the board that some of these had the B stamped backwards on the shell.
Two questions:
-any signifigance to that?
-what would people recommend to cleann this shell?
Thanks.
I remember reading somewhere that the regular B is brass shell and the upside down B is bronze. I have a 6.5 bronze shell with a 91' date stamp and the upside down B. Not positive on this, so I'll let others pipe in.
i thought that i read the b designated brass ands bz designated bronze. it may be different for different years however.
mike
The Rob Cook book (in reference to black beauties) says 70's shells marked with a B are usually brass sometimes bronze. 90's drums with BZ are bronze, BR are brass.
Can some of the knowledgeable Ludwig folks here shed some light on the "B" stamps?
Nash thanks for weighing in here: with the badge number my guess is this is from ths 80's...
Can people tell from my previous post pics whether they think it looks like brass or bronze (sorry for asking a stupid question but I am a beginner and not an expert on these things)...
Still looking for the answer as to what to use on this to clean/polish it...
At a drum show in S Calif several years ago William Ludwig III was asked this question, but gave an answer that wasn't really helpful,.." The B sometimes stood for brass, & sometimes meant bronze". He then tried to explain the difference in color, & added that he could not tell the difference sonically.
Back in 77 when the BB was reintroduced,it was made with a brass shell.Ludwig also had supra's with a bronze shell,but none in brass.Eventually,Ludwig dropped brass shelled BB's for bronze,and had no brass shelled drums at all.I would bet real money,your drum is in fact bronze.Bill Ludwig stated at one time,that you really can't hear the difference between brass and bronze anyway.I dissagree,but I'm sure the move was made based on the price of both metals,bronze being cheaper.
Hope that helps.
Steve B
If the finished isn't oil etched with fingerprints I would just wipe it down and settle into the patina.
These bronze shells are suppose to be darker in shade compared to their more yellow brassy sisters, due typically to a much higher zinc alloying content. This also would result in a slightly higher cost for the bronze shell as it has more copper / less zinc.
