I also agree that you need to move the strainer and butt over one panel. That's the only way you'll get it to sound decent.

The reason I asked is that the throw lever and knob are on the crimp side and not the muffler side like they are now in the first pic.

Some advice I use to plug holes in brass or bronze.

You need to move the throw to the correct panel, and with the extra holes, take a piece of Lead and hammer gently into the holes. Make sure you fill it good buy tapping till it comes out the other side. Lead is soft and you can clean up the extra lead with a rag or rough green pad. It should completely fill up the holes and come smooth after wiping off the residual. The shine on the Lead will fade to a dark color and blend in within two or three days.

Be careful and take your time and those holes will disappear.

Do not use anything that will scratch the bronze. Your finger nails are good enough to remove lead.

I realize it's a used,drum from the 80's but this is a factory screw up,and I would think ,Ludwig should make this right.More good will is earned in my mind at least,by a company admitting a mistake,and setting things right.Consumer satisfaction should be job one.

I would love to hear Bermudas or Buns take on this.I would also not do any drilling just yet ,till the OP hears from Ludwig on this.Maybe,call or visit an authorized Ludwig dealer,who CAN get in touch with the company directly,or at least a company rep.

Steve B

Yeah, it really would be great to hear somebody's view on it who is more "inside" the company (are Bun E. and Bermuda on here regularly?).

I have been playing and (dare I say) collecting Ludwig drums for a few years now, and had some issues on different drums here and there, but this is really really really far out.

I now know I could have it fixed by some extra holes and thanks to OddBalls tips, the drum even might be great/new looking after all, but I will see if i get some contact to Ludwig.

Even if they don't make it right, which I wouldn't blame them for (used drum/me being "blind-eyed") it sure would be great to have some official comment as to "what the f**k" happened....

FYI Bun E and Bermuda are both members on VDF.

I'm not convinced that this is a factory screw-up - it looks to me as

though a previous owner may have tried to hammer in new beds.

They look too distorted (see picture taken inside the shell) to be OEM.

MW

I was thinking the same thing. The beds in acoustiperfect shells are very subtle and a lot of folks think there aren't any beds at all until they set the shell on a flat surface and even then it's barely there. This looks to be too deep and too short to be that type of bed regardless of the positioning. I'm not saying it might not be something that happened at the factory, just that it doesn't really look like a typical Ludwig metal shell snare bed.

Is it possible that it's not an actual Ludwig snare?

No, i'm really sure it's original Ludwig (all correct Hardware/holes/"B" stamp above the muffler...).

The pictures I took don't really tell ALL the reality, becuase the light shining through the Snarebeds is really hard to capture right.

The snarebeds are really not that high, and looking at them close-up they must be factory. no way someone put them in afterwards. and then: why at the wrong place?

FYI: the snare has the large Monroe badge, with the top of the badge hidden under the top hoop/head when it's put on. serial is 324****.

i attached a pic of the assembled drum!

if its got the large keystone badge with Monroe on it, and high on the shell like you mentioned, that's most likely one of the earlier drums done after the move from Chicago to Monroe. those shells were originally intended to have blue olive badges which explains their position of the shell.

mike