Also, why on earth did they rivet the drums at the tom mounts so they are so noticeable, and the badges are under the muffler knobs on the opposite side so you cant even see them. Thats just incompetance, insane. The floor tom is fine. Badge is in a good spot, rivets in the back and so is the muffler knob.

Same thing with the 10" and 14" tom. tom mounts on the rivet seams. I replaced the clip mounts with the post mounts. The holes were the same. I like to use the 10' and 12' on the Bass drum sometimes, and you still see the rivet seam and not the badge. Outside that they are beautiful great sounding drums. They could have at least put the rivet seams in back and not put the badges under the muffler knob and the badges so they can be seen. Like I said I am the original and only owner. And always put them in hard cases when I took them out to perform. I am thinking about gigging them again. Havent taken them out since 86 or so. These are actually the drums I keep in my studio and record with. I wonder if my lifetime gurantee is still valid. Does anyone know what the fix was that they used to perform on the rivets to correct the situation?

ive seen people take a strip of matching wrap and glue to the drum covering the seam and rivets. it made the drums looks a lot better. Ludwig started riveting when they had problems with the wrap shrinking I think. I believe this was only done during the 6 ply period.

mike

yes Mike, I became aware of that a few yers later. you can see where the wrap is pulling away and the glue in the seam. But outside that, Why would they put the seams in the highest visilbe place and the badges where you cant see them ? The Floor tom is ok as far as that goes. I brought them into the house today from the studio so I could see good, and cleaning them up and thinking, my goodness what beautiful drums, and what a stupid thing to do,all the way round. The way they put them together.

I agree with you. bad choices made. that's for sure.

mike

Ludwig is allowed one horrible mistake in their existence I guess. Rivets were a bad one.

You played with Cornelius Bros? I'm impressed. They had some great tunes of course. For those unfamiliar -

Treat Her Like a Lady (#3 on Billboard)

Too Late to Turn back Now (#2)

That was my first big professional gig with a national act. I was 19. I tell people I started at the top and worked my way down.

Naw. You,sir are a class act! You are probably better now than you ever were! It's great to see such humour and modesty.

Brian

I once traded for a Ludwig wmp kit with the rivets. Half of the two rack toms were missing the wrap, right where the rivets started. I only did the trade because I gave the store an import kit and I figured I would eventually re-wrap the kit, but of course, I never did. The drums sounded great and the wrap on the kick and floor were fine, so I just took the 13" tom, put it on a snare stand and faced the good side to the audience, which fortunately had the badge showing as well. The kit looked great from the audience prospective, but not so much from where I was sitting.

I have no clue to why Ludwig thought rivets would help and why they put the badge on the side, I'm sure whoever designed the drums in those days is long gone.Clapping Happy2

I lost all pictures of that kit when my computer crashed, but I found one on the web. This was another solution I had, I put the tom on a rims system and put the good side to the audience.