I use chrome polish to clean mine (not that it gets played out much anymore....I save it for special occasions now) and then coat it with a coat of carnuba car wax. It does help keep it from tarnishing and the possibility of pitting. I think mine was used every weekend for 35 years by my dad before it was left to me in his will. He sidelined it for a limited edition african satinwood classic maple snare around 1996, but from 1968 to that point it was used every weekend. And it still has almost no pitting....one or two very minor ones if any. The man always took care of his drums.....his hardware took a beating over the years though.....I can't count the number of and different brands of stands/pedals he went through over the years....although his main go-to pedal for years was a Ghost. I remember the day it broke on him.....he was heartbroken! He couldn't get another one new as they were discontinued by the time this happened, the internet wasn't around yet, so there was no such thing as Ebay......yep, you guessed it was the mid-1980's!

Ooops....there I go again.....sorry bout that...LoLoLoLo

Anyway, carnuba wax to protect it is the way to go.....

It's pre-serial number, but it's Ludalloy...just always kept it cleaned, polished and in my trap case when not in use. There are a couple of very small spots of corrosion on the snare side barring edge.

My 67 Ludalloy baby treats me oh so right.

This is one of my 400's it is near an dear to my heart not just for the autograph that is inside of it, but because Mr Ludwig, shared some amazing stories with me, he was gracious, funny, and educational, We as drummers have been so blessed to have the Ludwig family in our lives for so long! and man what world class products they produced during their tenure!!

I use this stuff for cars that comes i an orange colored plastic bottle. It's called "Nu-Finish" and it's kind of like a wax -only drier. You just apply some with a cloth; It hazes over and then you clear it with another dry cloth. I've had great results with it. I think it lays down a very thin coat of silicone or something. And a little bit goes a looooooong way!

As far as the hardware, I use good old WD-40 to clean everything. When I get to some pitted areas, I take some popsicle sticks and break them in two and then scrape off the rust with the jagged ends with a little extra WD-40 spritzed. Then wipe everything clean with some paper towels. The wood won't scratch the metal but it will dislodge the rust. Yes, it does take some time, but I usually only have to do it once every decade or so!

Mine has a few scuffs, but none of that flaky peely stuff. I believe it is a '67, definitely Ludalloy. It has the sound that sold millions of records!

This is my first post so I'd like to say hi to everyone here. I bought a brand new Ludwig 5 piece kit in 1971 that came with a supraphonic snare. I have changed my snare heads about 3 times now. I haven't been totally confident

in my choices of heads. I like to play rock, r&b, jazz. Is there a web site that provides audio demos of the different heads available for supraphonic snares?

First of welcome...about the website(I have no clue)

I think mine would have beat that one. I bought it in '80 for $60. It got to the point where there were only little islands of chrome here and there and it was making a mess. I checked into getting it rechromed and that didn't seem viable so, gulp, I painted it gold. I know it's Kmart logic but the way it was it would always get that aluminum dusty white corrosion going on.

Now my stuff is in air con 24/7, but that wasn't always the case, and the humidity here (Hawaii) is pretty high most of the time, plus I'm real close (60' or so) to the ocean. Amazingly, in my studio things don't rust, the only air that comes in is from the back, away from the ocean and through the air con's filters. Air con really dries the air out.

Ya, ist schlunk!

I had a 68 Ludalloy 400. stunning condition chrome, but some 'numpty' had drilled for an after market strainer, so i sold it on