Looking for info on the makeup of late 50's-early 60's Ludwig bass drums. I'm assuming the shells were 3-ply mahogany/poplar/mahogany with solid maple reinforcement rings. What was the bearing edge profile? Were the interiors painted at that point in time? Were the shell plys staggered or did they have a lap joint? Any info on shell thickness?
Help2
My 1960 Ludwig 22 had a clear maple interior. The toms, however, were painted white inside.
Late 50's to early 60's is the change between the transition badge models and the Ludwig 60's keystone badge models. This is also the time period in which they moved from clear interiors to painted white resacote interiors. Most of the interiors were mahogany. Like GoJaskill mentioned, there were quite a few 22's with clear maple interior. Inner ply is always poplar. The exterior ply is usually mahogany when the shells were wrapped or clear varnish. They were usually maple exteriors when painted.
Mike
The seam was a lap joint (scarf joint) on all these. They applied the wrap to the flat plywood before they bent it into a shell.
Up through the 70's the outer ply on wrapped drums was almost always mahogany. The center ply was always poplar and the inner ply was usually mahogany but also varied between mahogany and maple (which wood should we use today Bill?). The white paint helped make them look the same regardless. Around '68 they changed things up, the interiors were clear and always maple (with some exceptions as older shells got used up) and the wrap was applied to the shell after it was bent.
The lap (scarf) joint seam remained until the late 70's when they switched to the 6 ply maple/poplar shells. Those did have the Gretsch style staggered seams.
