You're looking at a 70's kit with pre-serial badges. The dead-give-away is the 'square hole' spur-mounts for the bass drum spurs. That bracket is for 70's curved spurs/legs. A Pre-serial kit would have had either bayonette style spurs or, fold-away Gull wing style legs.
I wouldn't pay more than $500 for it as it stands. Great sizes, but it's a set of 70's 'Bonham' sizes, not off-the-shelf pre-serial kit sizes. At all.
Good drums, just not what they are represented to be.
John
I agree, 70's Ludwig. They are really nice drums. I would love to have a snare like that for my Ludwig Silver sparkle kit. Nice snare. The red felt baseball bat muffler and white interior puts in in the early 60's unless someone painted the inside and put that muffler on a later model drum.? If you like or want a large size kit, I think $500 is a steal actually. I am curious to know what the seller is asking for it. Have you checked the price lately of a new Ludwig classic set in those sizes? I am sure set up it is a beautiful kit.
My 18" 1968 floor tom has 2 pieces of wrap.
The badge on the bass drum doesn't even look right; it looks like a modern one. Anyone else think this? I agree on the re wrap and grommets at the very least...
Thanks guys. To answer some of the questions posed - yes, the two seams are on the 18" FT. Seller says all badges are the same and all say Chicago and have no serial numbers, except for the snare which does have a serial number. Waiting to get that. You would think if he tells me it has a serial number he would give it to me at the same time, but whatever.
So what I'm hearing is that the kit probably isn't a matched from the factory kit and is probably not pre-serial, but it should still be late 60's to mid 70's vintage, which I'm fine with. Is that a fair statement??
And to Vibes - yes, I've priced a new Ludwig Classic (7-ply) and Legacy (3-ply with re-rings) and the costs are astronomical. Over $4k and $5k, respectively. JUST THE 14" TOM in a 3-ply is $900! So this is what I don't understand - how can vintage 3-ply drums be only worth $500 if it costs $5k to buy new ones? I have recently seen two identical snares on ebay and craiglsist for $225+. Based on those two pieces of information, seems like they would be worth much more than $500.
Thanks again for sharing all the knowledge!
The way I look at it is , vintage pre serial badge Ludwig's ? No.
Some really nice 3 ply with rerings Ludwig players. Big Yes.
I don't think anyone is saying those are not nice drums. I think they would be a fantastic set. So what if they have aftermarket badges on them. As long as the guy is not trying to sell them at a astronomical 60's vintage price.
If your looking for a really nice Ludwig kit with the larger drums in a nice wrap , be it a rewrap, which I am not sure,. Silver Sparkle is beautiful, especially under lights. Those are some nice drums. I think they are worth 7 or 8 hundred dollars all day long. If they were mine I would not take less than a thousand for them.
If you want a nice looking great sounding vintage kit and you can get them for under $700 I would jump on them before someone else grabs them. Which they will. How much are they asking for them?
Asking price is $1,800. Just got pics of badges, and now I'm TOTALLY flummoxed. See pics below. The snare badge looks original (but does not have a serial number, he was confusing it with another snare he has), but the other badges look like bad reproductions, kind of a mix of the 1958-59 badge graphics but in the colors of the mid-60's badges. The drums themselves are still pretty dang awesome 3-plys, but the badges are awful. Why would someone put these badges on perfectly good vintage 70's drums? I do have one correction - the seller didn't actually advertise these as "preserial" drums, he advertised as "vintage" and just said they had no date stamps or serial numbers. So it was my bad to describe them as 'preserial' when I posted.
1st photo - Old pre-serial keystone badge.
2nd photo - Modern repro badge.
As Sherlock Holmes would say, 'the evidence' points to the following:
We're looking at a possibly re-wrapped 70's 3-ply kit with altered badges.
Asking $1800. for it shows signs of insanity or greed on the part of the seller. In terms of value as they sit, I have to agree with vibes, $700/$800 would be a good, (fair,) price for that kit. At $1800. it's definitely a pass though. For $1800. I can buy a used/player set of Camco drums.
John
Did any Keystone BD's have the square-section spikes like my 70's BD?
Josh
