Jeff,

I had no idea that you had that kit squirreled away. That is a great specimen!! I really like Mike's idea and the fact that he included the caution regarding shell impressions. While not vintage, some lug gaskets on metal lugs might be a good idea.

I thought that I was gonna be able to baby my vista kit with the plastic lugs. played them here at home for a couple weeks and a few of the lugs had started to crack already. luckily, I had bought some extras at one time. so, that's when and why I made the switch. can always put them back original.

great idea on the gaskets tnsquint..

mike

I should have bought an Educator set that was for sale around Inland Empire area a couple of years a go...At a very good price. They were black panther if the memory serves me well...Very cool set by the way! Are they made with the regular 3 ply shells?

they are supposed to be late 70's/early 80's rocker shells. I have read that they are 4 ply.

mike

Thank you to all responding members.

The shells in my kit are different. The 8x12 has rings and looks like 3ply maple poplar (very thick poplar) and one more, im not sure.

The 9x13 however has no rings and looks to be 4 ply with maple inside. Alltogether different shell construction, the inner ply is butted at the joint, the 8x12 inner ply is overlaped.

The bass and the 16x16 are the same as the 9x13.

From what I understand, Ludwig was using leftover shells they had laying around to build these kits with. They were trying to compete with the MIJ market which explains the plastic lugs but why did they have ten of them on the bass?

Fishwaltz is writing an artical on the Ludwigs low end drums, Il bet he will add to this sooner or later.

This kit has a funny story with it. I saw it on C.L. one Saturday and saw a blury (typical cl photo) pic of the badge. Thinking it was a Standard kit, which I had been wanting, I called him and asked for better pics. After I got the pics I had seen the badge said Educator on them. SO I posted a pic here on VDF to find more info. Turns out the selller read the thread and raised his price from 325 to 500. I told him I cant pay that much and hung up the phone. He called back an hour later with a counter offer of 375.00 and I agreed. The next day, Sunday, I took off for DeMoins Iowa, 3 hour drive one way. Left at 5:30 AM because I wanted to see the Bears game at noon. Drove about 15 minutes and thought, what in the hell are you doing, this is crazy. Your gonna drive for six hours for a cheep Ludwig kit? Well, I kept going and was back in time for kick off.

Im glad I made the trip, that 375.00 bought the drums, a Yamaha chrome snare drum, a Rogers hihat stand with Paisti 302 hats, a DW heavy duty snare stand and a real nice ride cymbal that with a made in Italy stamp. So , It was worth the six hour drive, lol!

Here is a link to the thread I had going,

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=28840&highlight=educator

WOOT! Man I do like seeing that kit, Jeff!

Yeah, you've got it cleaned up nice and shiny, and I'll add one more thing about 'Educator's'...

Those are RARE. And everyone should know by now the word rare is a rarity (ha, play on words) around here.

I still haven't delved very deep into the Educator line, but I have almost finished the first 'Combo' line, which was another attempt by Ludwig to use up old shells. The most famous 'Combo' anomalies are the wrapped Vista's, as that line had fallen out of favor at the time.

Actually, at this time, there is more information about Educator's and Combo's on this forum than anywhere else.

Thanks for posting the pictures, Jeff!

Craig

craig

ive seen chrome wrapped white vistalites before, but they had blue olive badges. are you saying that you've seen some vistalite shells that were wrapped and had combo badges on them?

mike

Here's another odd ball:

The next drum I'm planning on gathering info on is the Ludwig Combo PLASTIC snare. This isn't a Vista, but a molded plastic (I've seen black ones, no clue on other colors) with plastic 'chrome' lugs.

I thought I had some pictures of some of these, but after a quick search, can't find them. See page 23 of the infamous Ludwig '80' catalog (put out in the late 70's) for a good picture of the 'budget snare' as Ludwig calls it. Here's a copy.

Anyway, just some more Ludwig mud in the water...

Yep, I have seen them with my own bleary eyes... While the catalog(s) advertised Combo I and II's with wood shells, I've seen a set (one set) that was wrapped in white cordite with amber, blue and clear vista shells. All were concert toms and all had had some kind of stuff on the inside of the shells. The guy selling them said it had fallen out, come unstuck, so he'd just pulled it out. There were some remains around the lug screws, it looked like off white and / or very yellowed thick paper. I would have bought the kit (on C/L in a small town just south of here) but someone had beaten me to it. This was in 2010 or 2011.

fish

I picked one up a couple of months ago. mine is in pretty good condition. don't plan on playing it much with the plastic lugs. I mainly wanted it for my "weird" collection. I dig it..

mike