Hey all,

New to the forum, hope you’re all doing well.

Hoping some of you wouldn’t mind trying to play detective with me on some Ludwig drums I’ve picked up. They are B/O badge with serial numbers towards the bottom of the badge. The guy I bought them off couldn’t be any more specific than the 1970s, but I’m trying to narrow it down. I’ve done as much reading and research as I could find, and am still in a few different minds about what year they could be, depending on what I read.

The drums are 3 ply – with re-rings – with the serial numbers 1580151, 1580082 and 1575502. The insides are clear. The bass drum is virgin. All drums have the classic lugs and the bass drum has T rods and arc’d legs.

There is no mention of serial numbers beginning with 15XXXXX on any Ludwig or affiliated site that I could find. After a lot of searching, the only other mention of serial numbers beginning with 15XXXXX I could find is this kit here - http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132255&highlight=ludwig+blue+olive+badge - which the guy posting seems very confident is from ’76. Visually the kits look almost identical.

From reading up on the subject it seems that dating some serial numbers can be really tricky and isn’t an exact science. But having said that, any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Andrew.