just got these put together yesterday. these are late 70's Ludwig educators. these drums were never cataloged and a set pops up every now and then with a few differences between them. these are all orphans that are glad to be together. it started a few months ago when I picked up the lone floor tom. gave it a detail and tucked it away until I could one day find others to go with it. one day came much quicker than expected with the help of our fine friend and forum member jccabinets(jeff). jeff had a set but wanted a matching snare. he ran across a kit with the snare. I ended up getting his original bass drum, the new ride tom and my floor tom. both of us ended up with just what we wanted. can't thank jeff enough,super great guy!
educators were made in 3 ply and 4ply. wouldn't surprise me if there aren't some 6 plys floating around as well. these are 14x22,8x12 and 16x16. these came from the factory with pieces of different ludwigs. the badges are much like the Ludwig standard badges and the combo badges. mine are all 4 ply. these would have been some of the first if not the first 4 plys made. they have beautiful maple interiors and are wrapped in maple cortex. mine has maple finished hoops without inlays. I think they make the kit look great. I had some new old stock Ludwig silver dots for the toms. will be adding a clear bass reso head with Ludwig block logo when I run across one. most educators had plastic lugs from the factory. mine did as well. I put them up for safe keeping and added nickel bowtie casings (same hole pattern) for stability. I chose nickel because I had seen another kit that had nickel that was possibly original. Bermuda Schwartz owns the kit that I am referring to.
playing a chrome Ludwig standard snare with them currently. even have a black combo snare with the plastic lugs even though I don't play it much. have some tentative plans for putting a snare together to match these even better. these shells are real light and have a nice sound. different than all of my 3 plys but in a good way. broke out some hollow ink zildjian cymbals to keep them company today. digging em! a final big thanks to jccabinets jeff for making this happen.
mike
