Is that lemon strata? I love the finish. These Standards really are great drums, in many ways the wraps are cooler than the Super Classics and they sound every bit as good. This is like the fourth kit I've owned, but the first avocado strata. When the guy who traded this to me first mentioned it, all he said was that it's an old Ludwig maple kit. The initial picture he sent looked like the common blue strata, which is still cool, but then a close up picture revealed it to be the rarer avocado strata with the even rarer 14" floor and I said, uh, OK! Party

Yes that's Lemony goodness. Avacado and Bronze seem to be the hardest Stratas to find while Blue and Ruby were, apparently, the best sellers. Gold seems the next most common and then Lemon.

I think it's the wraps that really make these drums. That's the major appeal to me. These wack-job type of wraps that you ordinarily will only see on MIJ stencil drums but here being used on high quality American made drums. Some people might scoff about the hardware but there's not really anything majorly wrong with it. The smooth lugs are certainly functional, the disappearing spurs probably work better than the fold outs, the stands are a nonissue as no one is forced to use those at a gig (the Standard bass pedal and Hi-hat look cool but are truly terrible to use, but who would?). The tom mounting hardware is essentially the same as what Ludwig used on their other drums but with a smaller diameter tubing and there are workarounds there as well (see above). All the important stuff, the shells, edges, hoops, etc. are the same as the other Ludwigs. The wood shelled snare drums are nearly identical (certainly in sound) to a Jazz fest. All made in Chicago. So what's not to love?

Not the first, nor sure to be the last, time I've sung the praises of the Standards.

Here's more of mine (I also have a Gold Strata set in the same sizes), set to the lilting sounds of a cut off Hal Blaine's Psychedelic Percussion album.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWrYOMvTrQE"]Early 70's Ludwig Standard Drum Set in Lemon Strata - YouTube[/ame]

What color is that? Oh yeah, i read on Lemon Strada.

Strikingly nice.

And mesmerizing too.

For years I thought these were some sort of imports with Ludwig badges slapped on. In the 80's and early 90's I passed up so many opportunities to snag Standard sets for nearly nothing because of that bit of mis-information. The worst case being an Avocado Strata double bass set for $150. DOH! When I found out what they really were I started hunting for a set and first found a Gold Strata and then these Lemons. I've also collected one snare drum in each of the Strata wraps. I've got a bunch of Ludwig's other drums too but like I said above I love these wacky wraps. The mists and Astro wraps are plenty cool too but the Stratas are over the top.

I love that snare collection.

These wraps are maybe the last of the fantastic ones.

another lemon owner! Nice.