Ancient resurrect all right. But you've done me a service. I notice that I failed to mention that my 3x13 jazz combo is maple on the outer ply but mahogany on the inner ply. There are examples of shells with all possible combinations from the later 50s through the 60s: maple inner and outer, mahogany inner and outer, mahogany outer and maple inner, and maple outer mahogany inner. They all share the poplar inner ply and maple re-rings.

Meanwhile, if you substitute Compacto for Impacto, you are correct. Rob Cook's The Ludwig Book (p261) gives production dates for these 4x14 snares as 1956, and the Downbeat from 1960-1970. But I wouldn't be surprised to find well documented Compactos from 1957, 1958, etc. New ones are coming to light all the time, and Rob Cook's book is from 2003. I don't know if it has been updated.

The only question I'd have is about your strainer. In the picture in the Cook book, it is shown with the "beer tap" strainer, which is different from the downbeat strainer. You can see the Downbeat style strainer in the picture of mine above. Is yours like that one? Or a "beer tap"? (I'll have to rustle up a "beer tap" picture if you don't know what one looks like and can't be sure which one yours is).

And as Mike says Welcome He got his post in while I was filling out and cross checking the details in mine.

Yes I do. And it sounds as nice as it looks.

Thanks for the pic Mike.

510man:

I've never heard of an Impacto in the names of Ludwig snares found in Catalogs or in the standard reference texts. Compacto yes, Impacto no. You could tell us more about the person who told you "Impacto", whether or not they had a photo of yours to work from, and whether or not they gave you references to the Catalogs and standard texts on Ludwig history. Weigh the quality of their evidence against the references we have given you. Your call.

Now that you have posted a picture, yours fits the pattern of a Downbeat. It has the Downbeat lugs not the Compacto lugs. Look carefully and your lugs same as mine, with the squarer style and horizontal decorative lines. It has the Downbeat strainer. A WFL Drums badge is consistent with a Downbeat produced in 1960±2 because Ludwig are notorious for using up old parts after hardware (eg snare mechanisms, butts, badges) after new ones were introduced. They didn't throw all the old parts out. And the 1960 date isn't exact. No historical dates for changeovers are exact.

If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, I'd say it is most likely a duck. Or in this case an early Downbeat with a WFL Drums badge. :)

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on these matters, just an interested researcher. I've got the Ludwig catalog scans, and both Rob Cook's The Ludwig Book and Paolo Sburlati's book Ludwig Yesterday and Today. That's where my info comes from.

Don't feel bad about the added muffler. Ludwig made them the same way you were thinking about them. Hence all the variation in components. They were just meant to be played :)

Those of us who pay attention to things Ludwig generally say "never say never with Ludwig". I'd say they did make a WFL Downbeat because you have one. But that snare drum with that name didn't appear in a catalog or print ad that we know of. I'm not a "catalog purist" so I'm quite happy to call yours a Downbeat (on the basis of shell size, snare throw and lugs). Catalogs were expensive to produce and didn't come out every year so there are natural gaps in the record. They even reused old photos in some catalogs (expensive to reshoot them in the studio) which doesn't help. :)

On the matter of not having a baseball bat muffler. Drums could be ordered without mufflers. Having a muffler or not is not a basis for determining which name the drum would have been given. The main things are lug style, shell style and size, and for snares throw off and butt. The badge isn't the principal decider of the model name because models outlast badge changes.

Yours is again in a transition period between expecting it to have a baseball bat or the small knob. Mine has the small knob, for example. I haven't looked up exactly when the current best estimate of the beginning of the baseball bat is. And I presume you don't happen to have a date stamp inside?

Sorry I can't help with the straightening of the rim. I haven't had to do that. If you use the search function here you might come across some ideas.

The shell interior is another thing I forgot to ask about. White painted? Or just wood? And is it maple? Or African mahogany? If the re-ring looks the same as the inner ply of the shell then it is maple. But again the shells came in all possible combinations of inner and outer plys.