that is ludwigs first design of twin toms,the hollywood kit. ive got a 65 model that is 22/12/12/16. ive never seen one with an 18" bass. this style debuted in 59 or so and was used in mid to late 1965. the wood block spacer is original and should be painted black. i'd love to see pics of yours.

mike

found a pic of one for you.....

mike

Mike, thanks a lot. I just needed to know that it was a Hollywood and was able to do a better search, which brought me to a page that has scans of the original ad. I am able to zoom in close enough to see the twin tom holder in question. I have still never seen another photo of that tom holder anywhere outside of the ads which makes me think that it was only used on Hollywoods as the weight was balanced; am I correct? Also, the spurs are different than any in the photos since it is a smaller 18" (they are straight disappearing). Will get some photos up at some point. Do you think that there was floor tom that is MIA?

Thanks again, I have been wondering about this for years.

-MM

Twin 12"toms were very popular in the late 50's/early to mid 60's. I played that configuration on various brand drum sets for nearly 20 years. I usually used a 20" bass drum, but also had an 18" slingerland bass drum with two 12" toms. I also had a 1964 Camco set with a 22" bass drum and two 13" toms. I currently have a 100% original Walberg & Auge set that is dated inside the shells as 1972. The W&A set has a 22" bass and two 13" toms.

What you probably have is a bass drum from a Gold Coast kit where someone has used the mount (which was meant to be used for mounting the upper section of a snare stand) as double tom clip mount, instead.

I'd have to see the placement of the mount and the interior of the bass drum to be sure.

I think that O Lugs may be correct. But, there is a great likelihood that the configuration of the drum set was ordered by a music store either on speculation for display in the store or per the specs of the original owner of the drums. Most music stores in the Chicago area during that time frame stocked drum sets by Ludwig, Slingerland, Gretsch, Rogers, Camco, etc. in configurations that were different from the drum sets pictured in the catalogs of those brands. I bought quite a few drum sets from quite a few different Chicago area stores during the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Usually, the cheapo or no-name drum sets were package deals with no chance to get the exact configuration if you wanted something different. The bigger shops such as Frank's or Drums Limited would usually have stacks of many sizes of a drum brand in various colors. The consumer could custom make a drum set to his preferred specs right on the spot. To make it more convenient. Ludwig and Slingerland factories were located in Chicago. Camco started in nearby Elkhart, then moved to the Chicago suburb of Oaklawn. Gretsch warehoused a huge inventory in the same building as Drums Limited. Rogers were made relatively close to Chicago. Indianapolis and Elkhart are an easy two to three hour drive from Chicago. I didn't realize until many years later how fortunate I was to live right in the motherload of American drumdom.

THANK YOU EVERYONE! Yes, so far what everyone has said matches up. The twin toms were made for each other; when mounted the badges face out, seams face me and the muffle bats are both right above the knee. The bass drum matches the photos of the Gold Coast exactly (spurs, mount, etc.). It looks like this was put together in a drum shop. I don't think that I want to keep storing this so I am thinking about putting it up on eBay. Anyone want to offer thoughts on whether it would be better to sell as 3-piece or split and sell the BD and twin tom set separately?

Thanks again for all the help, today I was able to narrow in something that has been puzzling me for 15 years.

peace...

I guess that I missed the part that indicated there is no floor tom. Ludwigs were the most prevalent mid 60's American made drums. Depending on the color of the bass and toms, you or a new owner should be able to find a matching 16x16 tom fairly easily. Finding a 14x14 or 12x15 would be much more difficult. I would recommend selling them all together. You should be able to get top dollar for a factory original 18" bass drum with two matching toms that are original to the set.

All of our advice might be valid or might not be valid. We need to see pictures of what you have to make sure we are offering good advice.

In my experience, the 18 X 12 bass drum is very desirable -as long as it's part of a legitimate Jazzette configuration.....not so much so if it's in a Gold Coast or some other anomalous configuration.

Still, we can't really even begin to assess anything without detailed pictures. It's just guessing at this point.:Santa: