A couple of months ago a friend of mine mentioned that he wanted to sell his Black Beauty snare drum and asked if I'd be interested. I knew he had a BB snare but didn't know exactly what he had as far as how old it was, etc. When he descibed the drum to me, and the circumstances under which he got it, I realized that this was a drum I'd been wondering about the whereabouts of for nearly 40 years. We agreed on a price (not especially*cheap) and he patiently waited for me to raise the cash. I finally picked up the drum last week.

It is a 5" Black Beauty from very early in the production run when Ludwig brought that model out in the late 70's. The badge on the drum is an all silver B/O style badge with a hand engraved 3 digit "serial" number.

So here's the story ...

At the beginning of my*Junior year in high school (1977-78) a classmate, fellow drummer, and, at that time, close friend of mine decided he needed to upgrade his Ludwig set. He had a Hollywood set in Butcher Block cortex that he had bought slightly used about a year before (I had a similar set in Chrome-O-Wood finish). He ordered matching 10x14 and 12x15 toms and also bought a new snare drum*he'd just heard about*called a "Black Beauty".* That new*snare drum seemed especially nice in the black nickel finish (we didn't really*think that much about*the fact it was a brass shell). We did notice the odd badge on the drum. I jokingly maintained that it wasn't a "real" Ludwig because of that badge but all in all we didn't attach any real significance to it.*He used this snare with his set for a couple of bands he was in and then after high school he went into the Army and we lost touch. After his discharge*I'd cross paths with him on occasion but never thought to ask about his drums (this was before the vintage drum bug and resulting serious case of GAS had manifested itself in me). On one of the last occasions we spoke*he mentioned that he had sold all his drums.*Unfortunately for reasons unknown*he had slowly turned into*kind of* a "nut-job"* to the point where I*have avoided*any new*contact with him for reasons best left unsaid. Suffice it to say that, as much as I became curious about the whereabouts of that unique snare drum in recent years, *I was not about to re-initiate contact with him. I assumed it was long gone anyhow....a lost cause that had probably been sold and resold many times by now and was who knows where.

So when my friend Steve told me about his BB snare that he had bought about 12-14 years ago that had originally*been part of a 7 piece Butcher Block 3 ply kit he had my attention. When he described the odd badge he*REALLY had my attention. This was definitely the same snare drum. The drums had been sold to a local*A/V repair*shop that also dabbles in music gear. Since the original Supra was included they decided to separate the BB and keep it when the set was sold. After sitting around the store for a while the store owner traded*the BB*to Steve for a DW double pedal and it had been Steve's main snare ever since until recently when he started using something else and decided to part with it. I was the first person he called (knowing my habits) and he was willing to wait while I raised the funds.

So now it's mine (finally) after several decades of wondering whatever had happened to it. It's got a few nicks in the finish but overall it is in great shape. I have a thing for Chicago made Ludwigs so this fits perfectly into that niche.

About that badge.

There have been a few other drums that have surfaced with similar badges. All silver with hand engraved 3 digit numbers. All seem to date from roughly the same time frame. Given that I know for a fact that this badge was like that when the drum was new the badge must be "factory".

My theory is that these badges must have been used for some sort of internal ID number within Ludwig. Ludwig did not record, nor keep track of, the serial numbers on their regular production drums but may have needed to track some drums for whatever reason and may have used these badges for that.

Here are my thoughts on what the reason for using these unique badges may have been...

Prototype drums, possibly, but these would be much less likely to eventually get sold to the general public.

Display drums for trade shows. Perhaps a way to keep track of drums used for NAMM shows and other trade events.

Review drums, perhaps a way to keep track of drums sent out to reviewers and/or publications to test. Possibly but there wasn't much of that sort of thing going on in the mid to late 70's as the music gear magazines were just getting started.

Endorser drums....maybe, but there ought to be more floating around.

my favorite theory...

Salesman samples. It might have been worthwhile to keep track of the drums that sales reps were taking around to show to accounts. One would assume that these reps would need to sign out the drums they carried around while they were responsible for them. A unique badge and numbering system would aid that and also make it harder for a rep to make some extra cash by offloading a sample or two. Eventually when they were done with the drum it probably would be offered to a dealer at a discount and so it could find its way "into the wild" eventually.

My guess is that if it was one of these things, or some other reason I haven't thought of, They didn't do it for long before dropping these badges. There just don't seem to be many of them around.

I'm not 100% certain where this drum was purchased but am almost 99.9% positive it came from one of two places. It was either purchased at a music store in Clinton, Iowa or thru Franks Drum Shop. I'm about 75% sure it was from the music store as that was where he bought most of his stuff but we also did order things thru Franks (our band director was a drummer and Chicago native who was friends with the Lishons and would get us stuff at 30% off). Frankly I can't remember where it came from (and I'm not going to ask the original purchaser, assuming he even remembers). You'd think he'd have gone with the discount from Franks but the band he was in had close ties to that music store and I think they got pretty good deals there too. Either way this drum found it's way there, possibly ordered in, possibly just sitting in stock when my classmate wanted to get some new drums ( side-note: we both worked at the same grocery store after school but all my wages went towards my car while his parents gave him a vehicle so he could spend his money on music gear).

As to the blank badges themselves, possibly a bad batch that Ludwig saved and hit upon using for this purpose. I doubt they had these made up special as there don't seem to be that many drums wearing these but if they did have them in the plant you can bet they'd come with some way to use them.

So anyhow, not really a 40 year active quest but still a very satisfying ending to something that was lingering (more like festering)*in the back of my mind for decades. Oddly, other than the short time it spent at that store about 15 miles away the drum has always been within 2 miles of where I've lived. The original owner lived (and still lives) about a mile southwest of me and the guy I bought it from lives about a mile northeast of me.

If anyone has any additional info on these badges I'd love to hear it.