[67Twistytee]

I recently restored my dad's 1954 Leedy & Ludwig set. He bought it new with money from working a paper route and used it playing in a band in high school and later college to pay his tuition. The original 3-piece set was made in their Elkhart Indiana plant. In 1956, he added a floor tom made at Ludwig's Damen Avenue factory in Chicago.

The last remaining US Ludwig factory is down here near me in Monroe, NC. It was a fun research project learning about the various construction methods and metal finishing (this set is maple construction with nickle hoops and hardware). The local plant manager helped me track down the black diamond inlays I needed to restore the wood bass hoops. This set still has his original Zildjian cymbals too.

I'm hoping to go take a tour of the plant with my son although I've heard they no longer regularly schedule them. Some cool photos in the online tour - link below.

http://www.ludwig-drums.com/factory_tour.php

[Chastings]

Cool!

I use to play drums in a couple different bands... no time lately, though. I still manage to keep a guitar in the plane for long weekend trips (between that and the performanceyears forum I manage to pass the time).

I've never owned a ludwig kit but still have several older slingerland kits from the 63/64 era. The 64 is originally a 4 piece kit in "red satin flame pearl w/matching snare". I was able to find nos covering and add an extra tom (w/rim mount) + floor tom to bring it up to a 6 piece. I use to have it set up at the lakehouse--then the wife said that a grown man shouldn't still have drums in the bedroom... so out they went.

The 63 is also 4 piece but I was able to able to find an extra matching tom to convert it to a 5 piece with a rim-mount. It's "red glass glitter" with a matching Gene Krupa cannister throne.... it has a maple finished snare. This one is still set up in my basement; however, I don't seem to play much.

[shawn e.]

Dad is, brother is and I have 0% musical talent. But I am a good listener!

Shawn

[Steve Hoog]

Drummers like to hang out with musicians.

[67Twistytee]

I played as a kid -actually on this same set. They were in storage out west and I was worried about the desert heat so I had my dad ship them to me to restore. When I finished working on them, my son started taking lessons but now seems 100% focused on sports. Hoping he gets back to them as I think my wife has a similar response to them as Chastings wife...maybe I can relive the glory days

I also still have the calfskin heads that date back to when my dad played them but found Remo makes a vintage replica of the same heads. Those are on now and the skins are preserved in a box.

[JLHarper]

67Twistytee, Maybe you know this since you've done some research/resto recently;

Whats the back story on those Zildjian cymbals?

Sometime ago I caught a piece of a "hows it made" type show (iirc) that had some interesting facts about them.

Something about how they are made using the local (regions) materials for heat and the hundreds of year old process which I recall is or was top secret.

Recall there were many factors involved in mfg and how they sound....(?)

Aren't they all registered with serial number due to the unique sound they produce (as a set)?

Just curious....not wanting to divert your thread, but find these type stories interesting.

Jeff

[mrrat1]

I have a friend that sells old sets. He has them in MD & IN.

[67Twistytee]

Originally Posted by JLHarper

67Twistytee, Maybe you know this since you've done some research/resto recently;

Whats the back story on those Zildjian cymbals?

Sometime ago I caught a piece of a "hows it made" type show (iirc) that had some interesting facts about them.

Something about how they are made using the local (regions) materials for heat and the hundreds of year old process which I recall is or was top secret.

Recall there were many factors involved in mfg and how they sound....(?)

Aren't they all registered with serial number due to the unique sound they produce (as a set)?

Just curious....not wanting to divert your thread, but find these type stories interesting.

Jeff

Hi Jeff

You're not thread diverting. These kinds of topics tend to go all over.

The Zildjians date back to the Ottoman Empire over 400 years ago. Supposedly an alchemist was trying to make gold out of copper, tin, and silver. Instead he found out he could make a thin alloy that could be hit and sound musical without shattering. The company started making musical instruments in the 1800s and Avedis Zildjian III came to the US in the 1920s and started a factory in Quincy, MA with his brother and uncle to produce percussion cymbals.

The family was very secretive about the manufacturing process and passed the family secret down to the eldest male of each successive generation. Reportedly it was stored in a special vault that no one but Avedis had access to - kind of like the original Coca Cola recipe - lol. Avedis was once quoted that the reason the family secret had survived secret for so long is they never shared it with a woman. He said he would take orders from his wife to do the shopping but she wasn't allowed into the vault .

The Zildjian K line is 85 - 90% copper with about 10% tin content and 1% silver. This supposedly gives it that warm tone and expressive melody. The alloy was made in special gas furnaces and they often had explosions due to the nature of the underlying metal properties. The roof of the Zildjian lab got blown off so many times that Avedis had a specially reinforced concrete roof built. The salt water from the Bosphorus Strait was also thought to play a role in the alloy formation process. That's why they choose Quincy to build the new factory because the nearby Quincy Bay had similar salt properties. A German firm tried to copy the family secret in the 1920s, reportedly to no avail. Zildjian used specially trained hammersmiths to turn the alloy into music cymbals. Due to the hand made nature of the whole process, no two Zildjian cymbals are said to sound alike.

My dad's Zildjians do not have serial numbers, but they are hand stamped with Turkish writing and the Avedis Zildjian Co. logo. He told me when he would go audition new pieces in the 1950s and 1960s, the music store would take you into a sound isolation booth so you could demo the cymbals free of outside noise. They still do this today, although I'm not sure how much of the manufacturing process is still hand-made. You are correct in that if you can find a set manufactured at the same time, they are better matched sound than if you buy individually. Original sets can sell for a lot of money on the auction sites.

Andy

[edvisme]

I'm a player. Been drumming in a classic rock/country bad now for over 2 years. This band is one of many I have performed with over 20+years and has been the most fun.
Nice little set you have there. I like the Sabian cymbals. Sabian is a branch off of Zildjians, too. Along with Sabian cymbals my drum kit is Mapex, mapel shells in rosewood finnish, Drum Workshop snare drum, Tama iron cobra double Bass drum pedal and a Gibraltar drum rack. It's an 8 drum kit with a lot of cymbals.
Small kits like yours are a blast to play on and are a true test of a drummers skill level.

[67Twistytee]

Sounds like you're still enjoying it which is the whole point. My dad played a lot of jazz in addition to early pop rock. He kept a small set because it was easier to move around to the gigs while on the road. He was pretty fast with it and developed that "drummer calf" from the speed pedal. A friend of his painted a really cool Dick Tracy style cartoon on a bass overlay but it disintegrated over time and I couldn't save it.

[PonchoV8]

Nice drum kit!

Originally Posted by Steve Hoog

Drummers like to hang out with musicians.

Those would be bass players.

Why is a drum machine better than a drummer?

Because it won't sleep with your girlfriend.

Drummers are the actual body of the song. Who dances to guitar? Bass guitar was invented because there aren't enough drummers out there to create the groove for the song. Keyboards are added because guitarists can't carry their weight. Without a drummer the secondary instruments, like guitar, are left to be played on the bed of their owner who is probably sitting in his mom's house. Anyone with a pot belly picking his nose can play guitar, bass or keyboards. EVERYBODY (including drummers) can play guitar. Not that I have an opinion, or anything.
The only vintage drum I have is a 1964 Ludwig Jazz Festival.

My skills aren't so good, so my Premier Signia kit consists of double bass (or double pedal), 5.5" snare or 7" snare (which has the body of a super model), two hi-hats, and a choice of 8", 10", 11", 12", 13", 14", 16", 18" toms and about 10 cymbals from China to splash....but my V-Drum set replaces my actual drum sets that I used to play. My ride is a marching band cymbal I believe. A 20" Zildjian Z-mac.

[poncho-mike]

I was in the elementary, middle school, and high school band from the third thru the 11th grades. I started out on brass instruments playing the trumpet, and eventually got in a little drum time. I played in a barn band for while, but I was the only person who could read music, so it didn't work out very well.

I still catch myself sometimes playing the march cadence with my fingers on a desk, and it's been over 40 years since I played a musical instrument.

[67Twistytee]

Originally Posted by poncho-mike

I still catch myself sometimes playing the march cadence with my fingers on a desk, and it's been over 40 years since I played a musical instrument.

My dad does the same thing. I can remember him tapping swing notes with his wedding band on the plastic steering wheel of the GTO. The padded wheels from later cars weren't as noticeable. We got him one of those electric finger drum kits to use at his desk, but he usually resorts to wooden pencils.

[pontiak]

Your Ludwigs look great! I still play an early to mid 60's Slingerland set. Silver Sparkle that I bought around 1975. It still has the Zildians that came with it. I recently bought Evans heads.