Starlight Sparkle! That's the one, Mike! If I recall correctly, didn't somebody say that Starlight Sparkle was a Gretsch wrap? You know what it looks like to me, the modern/darker version of Champaign Sparkle! Dark background. The difference in mine is the wine/burgundy tinge the color has. That's what fooled me into thinking it was faded Burgundy wrap to begin with.

Gretsch? Did that wrap ever show up in a catalog?

John

PS - Hah! I just found this thread right here at VDF! THIS is the wrap!

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=1910

Anybody tell me how a Gretsch wrap gets on a Ludwig kit in 1958/9? My best-guess is, Delmar sent Ludwig (along with other companies,) samples of the Starlight Sparkle wrap and my kit may be the 'sample-kit' they assembled to check out the wrap! That's my best guess anyway. They sure as hell didn't run 'Starlight Sparkle' as a mass production-run wrap. Never showed up in any Ludwig catalog that I'm aware of. I know Ludwig did a lot of custom orders back then, is it possible someone ordered a custom kit and then supplied the wrap themselves? The wrap goes into the scarf joints. Factory job. Anybody? John

john

there is another like situation that comes to mind from the same period. a fellow forum member has a ludwig transition badge jazz festival with a wrap that looks like galaxy but doesn't have the greens or the reds. the gretsch guys call it "anniversary sparkle". anyway, its on a few drums and never was in a ludwig catalog. i even have what was a 12x15 1969 b/o badge marching snare that has the same identical "anniversary sparkle" with original badge and grommet. i guess the factory could get its hands on certains wraps and do what they wanted with them. sure makes us all scratch our heads 40 and 50 years later. here is a pic of my drum that i mentioned with added wood hoops.

mike

Be nice if there was a reference book for all these odd drums and kits from the major drum companies. Like those painted Ludwig stainless steel shells I found a couple of years ago, nobody knew what they were. Same with this kit... an oddball by any standards.

Wish I could match a j-fest snare to them... but try and find one!

John

Wow! What a kit! Can you post a video of you playing them so we can hear it?

I have a digital video-cam but the sound is crappy on it. It wouldn't be fair to the drums. To do it right, I'd have to mic the entire kit in order for the drums to sound 'true', the way they sound live. I've recorded some of my drums with the video-cam before and it sounded hollow, tinny, muddy, far away, all the mids get dropped out. I'll try to record a couple of clips, if the tubs sound good, I'll be happy to post em up for you.

John

Hey Purdie, glad you got your drums back! Those tubs must love ya, cuz they keep coming back home. I also want to thank you for all the tips you give us here on this ol' forum. You really are a drum freak!. My fave bits of advice are as follows- slicing metal collar on drum heads to fit when they are too tight(my Meazzi's sound unbelievable now), those floating feet , floor toms and bass drums sing forever, and the emad bass drum head. I never would have tried if i didn't read you singing it's praise. Anyways, don't let those drums go again, and thanks for sharin' your wisdom with the rest of drum nerds. Boogie!-drwatts

Thank you for the kind words! And, you're most welcome. I'm 64, I've got 52 years of drum info/details in my head, I figure it's time to spread it around to the next generation of players. I'm glad to hear it's helping some folks out.

In stark contrast, there's one guy on here that thinks I'm a 'worthless' human being. (That's a quote from an actual post!) So, thanks for balancing the scales with your compliment.

John

This is pretty rad man!

Unless you mic these, they're not a great Rock set of drums. Not enough natural volume and projection for that. What they are is; old-school FAT, resonant and very warm sounding. I really enjoy playing these, it's a melodic sounding kit, very 'musical' which fits my style of playing to a tee. I think you'd get a kick out of playing these drums. My basement drum cave is always open. If you ever get out my way...

John