I am the original owner of a 1980 set of classic maple 6 ply Ludwig drums.
The wrap has pulled away from the rivets and waved up. Other than that they are in excellent condition. But not very attractive at the seams.
These had a lifetime warranty. If I have my receipt will Ludwig still make good on the warranty? I would be willing to remove all the hardware and send them the shells for a rewrap if they did.
Call em..
I toured 1728 N. Damen when they were doing the rivet thang!..Prolly around 1982?
What were they thinking? When I was in retail back in those days, we had trouble with riveted wrap on some new Ludwig drums. Had some trouble with plastic lugs on student snares. Ludwig did replace defective articles.
When I was on the guided tour of the plant,when I saw the rivets,I had to ask what that was about..
The lady said they were getting their pearl from Italy,and it was shrinking,so that was the fix!
It would sure be interesting to see if they do. With all the original paperwork I don't see why not? ;)
I called the music store where I bought my drums and the guy who answered the phone was my bandmate in the band that had all our equipment burned.
It was 1981 not 80 as I was thinking.
The reason I had to get another set. He remembered close to the date and said he would look for the receipt for me but it was before they started logging everything on computers. He said they had boxes of the earlier stuff in storage in the back.
I also checked out the drums again today and the bass drum is the worse. The toms are not to bad, along with the floor. I will post some pics and see what you guys think. I wonder if Ludwig has the info of that set as it was a special order from Robbins Music Center.
The fact that Ludwig noticed that the wrap was shrinking means that it was shrinking ----I mean really shrinking.They only had it in their possession for a few months. Some of the volatiles in wrap, depending on it's base material evaporate and butt joined wrap after 30 or 40 years will show an 1/8" or even wider seam. How could Ludwig , knowing that the wrap was shrinking , think that it would stand the test of time? Maybe the rivets were lifetime guaranteed.
