I've heard that the purpose of the white paint was so they could use either mahogany or maple for the inside ply (whichever they had on hand) and still maintain a uniform look.

Whether that's the truth or just more "Ludwig lore" I can't say for sure but I'd bet the farm that there are both mahogany and maple interiors under that white paint.

I just bought a transition badge kit from 1959 that has a rack tom with a maple interior. Go figure. I thought it was an anomaly but several people on this forum pointed out that this was not uncommon.

I'm not a betting man...But i'd take that bet too. But I want to hear some first hand accounts.

Jason

Okay, here ya' go. This is the impression of it I got from Mr. Ludwig.

They started using white paint because some batches of wood didn't look very good.

When maple became easier (and probably cheaper) to obtain than mahogany they switched over to more maple shells.

These changes were usually made for business reasons, not musical or artistic considerations.

Mr. Ludwig used to be amused that people made a big deal about the paint and the wood.

Jason, that 14 x 10 marching snare I have has white paint and underneath it was the maple ply....come see for your self.

So i'm guessing with that info and that change happening around 68ish, it would seam completely possible to get some white over maple interiors in transition to all maple...

The reason I ask is the psych red kit i'm trying to clean up has white interiors. The 12 is a maple interior. The 20 however is white and so is the 14. There's a couple little flakes here and there, and it looks like maple underneath. So before I go removing the white paint, I want to make sure it isn't factory. I think the 14s white is original because it has the baseball bat muffler while the small tom has the knob. But the bass is up in the air still...

Thanks for the input so far.

I do remember that Gary, but wasn't that drum repainted by someone else? I seem to remember the screws were painted too...

jason

I don't think it was painted by someone else. I'll have to find it and check again, pretty sure it was factory.

I was referring to 1960 when maple started to be used more than mahogany. If one wood wasn't available they use another, no big deal at Ludwig in those days.

So when did the first white interior actually appear? Could a Transition badge bass or tom have a white interior? I ask because I have a very "Swiss-cheesy" 20" Transition bass ,and I was wondering if it would be kosher to paint the interior white after plugging all the holes.

Mike