Hello,
What is the best guide to identify a Ludwig drums age with respect to serial numbers?
My question arises after finding a b/o badge on a set of drums with number 1127323. Using the list on this site it dates 1976, and the new Rick Giers guide is 73-74......how could there be such a discrepancy in years between these two guides? Are there other Ludwig guides as well?
I am new to the vintage drum scene and trying to learn.
you can count on the info in rick's book. lots of work went into this and the info is accurate. the internet and more and more people sharing information has given better/more examples of data to record compared to older publications.
mike
you can count on the info in rick's book. lots of work went into this and the info is accurate. the internet and more and more people sharing information has given better/more examples of data to record compared to older publications.mike
+1.
Ricks data is based on much more information. Most of the guides posted prior to his were extrapolated from a small number of data points and a lot of guesstimation. Rick's is built off theirs but added an additional mountain of data and he is very scrupulous about tossing out any data that might be questionable.
Take into consideration that Ludwig stored their shells too. Three years is not a long time for over run shells to wait for their chance to jam.
My question arises after finding a b/o badge on a set of drums with number 1127323. Using the list on this site it dates 1976, and the new Rick Giers guide is 73-74......how could there be such a discrepancy in years between these two guides? Are there other Ludwig guides as well?
In Part I of my guide I discuss the strengths and limitations of each of the existing guides. Hopefully my explanations provide a fairly complete picture of the guides based upon the numbers used to create them and the ways in which they are (mis)interpretted. Only Rob Cook's guide made much of an attempt to address the Blue/Olive badges of the 1970s. His numbers were influenced heavily by information from Paolo Sburlati. There is one particular set in Paolo's book that causes more drums than seems appropriate to be labeled as from 1976.
In Part II I describe the methodology that I used to develop my guides. The discrepancies between the existing guides and mine are primarily the result of a considerable difference in the amount and reliability of the data used to develop them.
Reread Parts I and II carefully and see if it makes more sense to you. If not, feel free to contact me directly or on this thread for additional discussion.
Mike, Kevin, Bun E - Thanks for the kudos.
Rick
