I was wondering if a new Ringo kit would show up on this thread. The link is fine, price, store, ect..my point would be 60's Black Oyster Pearl vs 70's to current "bowling ball" finish, and if that matters to the original poster of this thread. The link provided would make it so easy, I'm rethinking of even bringing it up. Uggg.

The kit I checked out was prety cool. I have heard of some issues but Ludwig was quick to take care of the problems.

I'm the one who furnished it, and even I'm thinking of grabbing these for that price. MC's are great sounding, well made kits. The only thing the older kits have over these is price. And you know the head's will fit, and they'll tune up great! I've got a buyer on the hook for my 3 ply sky blue pearls. If they sell, I'll be taking these!

Again, thanks for all your posts. LudwigDrummer, thanks for the link. I've been referencing that site for background info.

Just the process of slowly learning what's what is fascinating. I'm not quite ready to jump in yet, but am getting a better sense for what I'm looking for. At one point I was contemplating getting a correctly dated/sized kit that was in need of re-wrapping, but having read about the fact that the original wrap was tucked under a portion of the wood, that doesn't seem like such a brilliant idea after all.

As an aside, are there any codes, patent numbers or other markings that enable you to decipher the ages of cymbal stands, high hats and bass pedals?

For the 1400 stands, it seems like the shape of the head is one clue to early '60s. From what I gather, the part where it can be rotated on an angle is round on the early models and more sculpted on the later units. Is that correct?

For the high-hat, what differentiates an 1123 from an 1123-1? Is it primarily in the pedal, with the former bearing the Ludwig Speed King mark and the latter with Spur-Lok?

As has been mentioned in several other posts I've come across, this forum is great for information. I appreciate all who contribute and thank you in advance for sharing the wealth of knowledge you have with a newbie such as myself.

While it is always desirable to own a completely original collector's kit, sometimes due to financial or time constraints it's impractical or not possible. Earlier this year, I put together a reproduction Ringo 60's kit that came out great. In a nutshell, here's an abridged version of my journey.

I'm a high school band director in Honolulu and programmed an all Beatles program for my final concert in May. I thought it would be a great touch to have a 60's Ludwig Ringo kit onstage as an added touch for the concert, so I started looking online for 60's vintage Ludwig orphan drums (with baseball bat mufflers and white interiors). I already owned a 1964 Jazz Festival (in Gold Sparkle), so I just needed the bass drum and toms.

After 5 months of searching and bidding online, I ended up with the following drums:

5 1/2" x 14" snare drum - January 10, 1964

8" x 12" tom - April 14, 1967

14" x 14" tom - November 1958

14" x 20" bass drum (#45268) - [No Date Stamp]

I removed all of the hardware on the drums, cleaned and polished every piece carefully and made an assessment of what parts I may have to replace. I also decided to install Rogers Swivomatic mounts on the bass drum and 12" tom. I found some on Ebay for a reasonable price and waited for them to come in. Also, the original bass drum hoops are out-of-round and cracked so I order a 10-ply pair from Precision Drums and have them painted in black gloss.

Rather than attempt the re-cover job myself, I decided to have Ludwig historian and master drum technician, Jack Lawton, do the work for me. I packed up the shells and sent them off to Pennsylvania. In the meantime, the Swivomatic mounts arrive and are somewhat pitted so I decide to have them re-chromed locally. Also, I chose to order after-market collet noses machined from 303 stainless steel from Jim Ryan in Wisconsin.

With regards to hardware, I found two Model 1400 cymbal stands, a Model 1163 flat based snare stand and a Model 1121 hi-hat stand (still looking for the elusive 1123) for fairly reasonable prices on Ebay. I purchased a "souped up" Speed King from Jesse Caraway in Colorado. Definitely the smoothest Speed King you'll ever play! Also, my wife got me the Beatles logo head for my birthday from Russ Lease at beatlesuits.com.

Jack Lawton plugged the holes for the old rail mount tom holder, recovered the shells with the 60's BOP wrap and installed the Rogers Swivomatic mounts for me. He did all of this in record time (would you believe one week?). Thanks, Jack!

I spent the next couple of days putting everything back together. Below are pictures of the transformation process. As you can see, the drums look great. As Jack Lawton said, "The drums came out beautiful. They'll look just like Ringo's drums on the Ed Sullivan Show!" For the record, they SOUND GREAT, too!

Attached are a handful of pictures of the project.

Aloha and good luck with your own project.

drummer808

Drummer808, what can I say? The kit looks phenomenal. Thanks for all the info and photos. I'm going to touch base with Jack Lawton to see how he dealt with the issue of tucking in the wrap and filling spare holes.

Incidentally, the Swiv-o-Matic mount that you used raises an interesting trivia question about whether Ringo's kit would have had extra holes left from the original Ludwig tom mount bracket. My guess is that would be the case.

LudwigDrummer, thanks for the date link.

Please give Jack Lawton my best when you contact him. Yes, Ringo's kits with the Rogers Swivomatic mounts had the extra holes from the original Ludwig hardware. For the sake of authenticity, I thought about leaving the original holes for a while, but decided to have Jack fill them at the end for cosmetic reasons.

I'm glad you like how my Ringo kit turned out. I look forward to checking out your finished kit when it's done here on VDF.

Aloha,

Ira from Honolulu

Okay, I took my first plunge and bought a ratty '60s 13x9" tom shell, which has now launched me into the quest to build either Ringo's #3 or #4 kit.

Here's the strategy I'm working with. I've seen a number of really nice matching numbers Super Classic kits from the '63 to '65 period. Most are sparkle or WMP wraps. If I can get one of those sets in good shape, then I'll pull the hardware off and store the shells carefully. At the same time, I'll try to pick up 22x14" base and 16x16" floor tom shells (plus bass drum hoops) from the same era that have been stripped of hardware and already have mongrel drill holes. (The snare is going to be a whole other project that I'm not focused on at the moment.)

Once I have those, plus the correct Rogers tom mount hardware, then I'll have the shells re-wrapped with period-correct black oyster pearl and use the hardware from the original set with them. I'm thinking this will give me the best of both worlds. I will be preserving the original set while at the same time returning otherwise derelict shells back into service in a styling way.

With all that said, does anyone have a recommendation on who is stocking the most faithful reproduction of the early '60s Black Oyster Pearl wrap? I'm thinking of sending the shells of to Jack Lawton once I have everything I need and he seems very highly recommended, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone has a better source.

Also, on another technical note, does anyone know if Ringo's #3 and #4 kits had serial numbers or not on the badges? I'm assuming #4 did as it was purchased for the 1965 tour. But he took delivery of the #3 kit in May '64, which means it potentially could have been an unmarked '63 kit or a very early '63/'64 serial number series. Unlike the band's guitars, which are extremely well documented and photographed, I've found relatively little on this aspect of Ringo's kits.

As always, thanks for your time and assistance. This forum is phenomenal for the wealth of information people have to share.

Uoscar:

Its a daunting task, but it can be done. Personally, I wouldnt try to build a Ringo set, I'd buy one of the repro Ringo sets that are out there used.

Also, keep something in mind about all those little things. Those are the things that really drive the price up, and many of them arent really essential.

Take the Swivomatic holder...Ringo didnt ALWAYS have a swivomatic, there are pictures of him at Abbey Road where its clear his Ludwigs have the standard tom holder. You could just use the standard holder and technically, you would still be right. Things like that.

Good luck with your project. I've always wanted to form a Beatles cover band and use the Ringo set, but never did.

awesome looking kit! I have a spray painted 22 13 16 60's Ludwig kit I found for first cheap and I want to turn it into a green sparkle kit. Curious though, where did you get this "souped up" speed king pedal from? I googled that guys name and nothing turned up! thanks