Wow...17 people viewed,and not 1 person knows?

A lot harder question then I thought!!

if your really pushin for an answer, 79-80. i still have the stuff i bought in the early 80's, its all big. I still use it it works great. so does the 70's, it works great too. you can't go wrong...

From what I understand, 6 ply shells were first used around '76, and 3 ply shells were slowly phased out over the next couple of years.

76 is /was my gut feeling as well.

mike

^^^That's my understanding, also.

It was around 76. However, cats were a bit behind and it finally appeared in the 79 marching cat first. The 80 cat followed it up. BUT, these numbers are not the year of the cat production, so the 79 cat would have actually come out in 78. I know without a doubt the 80 cat came out about a year prior to 80. I still have mine with my notes from high school. I graduated in 80.

So, the tooling could have been finalized late 76 with the Marching cat begun in 77, which would have put the publish date in 78 - that would follow the correct timeline for Ludwig.

Thanks for the info ............

I thought by 76,they still had Granitone inside,or was the 6 plies right after that?

It's my understanding that Ludwig came out with 6 ply shells in or about 76 on the matching drums..Then in or about 1979 all shells were 6 ply and Ludwig started to sell the 3 ply shells as COMBO set's in the 1980 catalog...Mikey

OK......if my kit is 1979 (circa),aren't the 5/16" spurs and pointed badge odd for that late?

Thanks