Im sure you guys have seen the ad for the New Ludwig Legacy Classic Line in Modern Drummer Magazine. I was really excited when I saw these..and the sizes and finishes looked great...then came disappointment. First I was very disappointed that holding the 2 beautiful outer maple ply's together would be a core made of Poplar...eccch! Second of all..it appears that these maple/poplar drums are going for outrageous prices of $4,000.00 to $6,000.00. I couldn't believe it. Why are these drums so much more than regular classic maple's???








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I don't know man, but they are beautiful drums. I don't know if they're $4,000 beautiful but still. Just so I'm sure I seen one in DRUM! that was a green and purple fade is that what you saw?








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cableman26 wrote:

I don't know man, but they are beautiful drums. I don't know if they're $4,000 beautiful but still. Just so I'm sure I seen one in DRUM! that was a green and purple fade is that what you saw?

yeah..there's an emerald sparkle fade.. and a wine sparkle fade. If they were all maple they'd be worth it..but the Poplar is a disappointment.








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Yea I know, I don't know why they done that. That's probaly the best finish on a kit i've seen in a long time though.








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The shell configuration is the same as the vintage Ludwigs of the 50's & 60's. You always hear how warm and beautiful sounding Ludwig drums of that era are and the truth is that they were never all-maple, there was always poplar in the configuration until they went to the all-maple shell in 1998. Poplar is very similar in nature to maple which is why they use it. Poplar doesn't have as dense of a grain structure so maple handles finishes much better than poplar. Those drums do sound great but that sound does come at a high cost. I'm waiting to see if Ludwig adds more color and size options to the Legacy line and the curved spurs.

awesome, they're going straight back to the materials/configuration used in the classic 60's drums!

still that's a ton of cash, especially given how common old ludwig sets are.

Ingenious!








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Drumming is my passion.
Recording is a habit.

the new Legacy series will also be available in Silver, Red, Green and Champagne Sparkle wraps!!

individual drums are also available but i don't know if ALL sizes are or just the ones that are part of their shell packs which are:

18x24
18x22
16x18
16x16
14x14
10x13
9x12
8x10

and they have a beautiful new sparkle finish in the Classic Maple line -- Indigo Sparkle








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Alan_ wrote:

awesome, they're going straight back to the materials/configuration used in the classic 60's drums!

still that's a ton of cash, especially given how common old ludwig sets are.

Not being active in the modern drumming scene, I have just discovered that Ludwig has issued this line. For the life of me, I can't figure out why everybody is saying that the materials are the same as the old 3 ply shells. This simply is not true, for the most part. Maybe it is because Ludwig is advertising them this way.

Shells from the 1950s and 60s are Mahogany/Poplar/Mahogany. Usually. I do have one stray tom tom that is Maple on the inside and Mahogany on the outside. I have read in vintage drumming articles that Maple was used on the outer ply because it took wood finishes better than Mahogany. I have read that sometimes Maple was used on the inside and outside if Mahogany was not in stock. But, the majority are Mahogany on the inner and outer plies. My pre-1957 WFL snare is Mahogany, my 1958 transition snare is Mahogany, my 1969 Ludwig Standard set is Mahogany. The snares are clear coated on the inside. The 1969 set is gray Granitone on the inside. That stray tom is from the early '60s, and it does sound different with the Maple. A little brighter. It is also white coated inside, which may effect the sound.

You can recognize the Mahogany plies because they are cinnamon colored and the inside of the drum has a peppery smell from that species of wood.

A typical problem with the old shells is that the bearing edges were not cut consistently. They range from pretty good to pretty bad. With calfskin heads, which were used when the shell design started, this didn't matter much. With plastic heads, some work on the bearing edge to level it and thin out the "fat spot" where the plies are glued together can greatly improve the tuneability. These new shells will have perfect edges in the rounder profile, an advantage over the old ones. I speculate that Mahogany is now just too expensive to use and Ludwig is trying to re-write history a bit for marketing purposes. If I bought new drums, these new Ludwigs would be my first listen. I would rather have what I have, though, because they are the real thing

michiganice91 wrote:

Im sure you guys have seen the ad for the New Ludwig Legacy Classic Line in Modern Drummer Magazine. I was really excited when I saw these..and the sizes and finishes looked great...then came disappointment. First I was very disappointed that holding the 2 beautiful outer maple ply's together would be a core made of Poplar...eccch! Second of all..it appears that these maple/poplar drums are going for outrageous prices of $4,000.00 to $6,000.00. I couldn't believe it. Why are these drums so much more than regular classic maple's???

It sounds like Ludwig is trying to put out drums similar to the old WFL Ludwig drums. They were a maple poplar maple or mahogany configeration. They were very warm sounding - much like what Ringo and Joe Morello used - ever hear Morello's drums on Take 5?








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Alden Merrill

Ford Drums
Zildjian Cymbals, Aquarian Heads
Vater, Cappella and Vic Firth Sticks
Proudly playing drums crafted in the USA.

I can probably enlighten you as to why the drums cost so much. They are super labor intensive to make. It is all done by hand and quality control is top shelf with these drums. The finishes are all hand applied and this contributes to the high cost. The drums that are starting to make their way from the factory with covered finishes are cheaper.
One of the biggest costs to these drums is the maple plies. The 1/16 " maple plies are NOT industry standard thicknesses. Most drum companies use industry standard thickness plies and this lowers costs. The original shells were made in a time when 1/16" maple was available worldwide. They have to special order this thickness and it costs lots of money to do that.
The original shells were made of maple/poplar/maple and occasionally maple(inner)/poplar/mahogany depending on wood supply. The earlier shells from the 50's were mahogany/poplar/mahogany as in the 40's and 50's mahogany was usually a standard wood for drumshells. This was at a time when mahogany was actually mahogany from africa and other sources, not the later "mahogany" that is from the phillipines etc that is actually Luan and other soft woods.
These drums are top of the line, I have played on 2 sets and they are BIG SOUNDING. I played a small set with 22x14 kick, and 12,13,16 toms. They were great, and I played a set with 24 kick, and 13/16/18 that sounded like bigger sizes. I am getting a set in the next 12 months, just gotta liquidate my life savings of useless stuff on eBay.

This is quite a bit of useful info! Thanks for weighing, everyone!








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Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
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Atmerrill wrote:

michiganice91 wrote:

Im sure you guys have seen the ad for the New Ludwig Legacy Classic Line in Modern Drummer Magazine. I was really excited when I saw these..and the sizes and finishes looked great...then came disappointment. First I was very disappointed that holding the 2 beautiful outer maple ply's together would be a core made of Poplar...eccch! Second of all..it appears that these maple/poplar drums are going for outrageous prices of $4,000.00 to $6,000.00. I couldn't believe it. Why are these drums so much more than regular classic maple's???

It sounds like Ludwig is trying to put out drums similar to the old WFL Ludwig drums. They were a maple poplar maple or mahogany configeration. They were very warm sounding - much like what Ringo and Joe Morello used - ever hear Morello's drums on Take 5?

Actually the covered kits like Ringo played early on were Mahogany Poplar Mahogany. Almost all of the drums that were "wrapped" were mahogany. Anything that had a natural finish was usually maple. Ringo's 1969 Hollywood kit was Maple Poplar Maple... The nice big warm kit that is responsible for the last two records, Let it Be and Abbey Road. Pretty badass tom sounds if you ask me! The only thing that pisses me off is that they're making every size drum BUT the Bonham sizes.. I always said if Ludwig ever reissued the 3 ply idea i would go in on a Bonham kit, but the only correct Bonham sizes they have are 16X18 and 16X16!

Maybe they'll budge! I live about 20 miles from the factory in Monroe. Maybe I need to go down there and see what they're up to!

And DW are meant to be expensive!!!! I saw a couple of these kits last year at DrummerLive in London. The Ludwig stall was crap so it probably didn't help, but I tapped around the Legacy drums and they sounded very unremarkable.








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You can own the greatest drum ever made, but it won't change how well you can play it!

I own a 60's Ludwig set covered in White Marine Pearl. I'm gonna have to disagree: mine are maple on the inner shell, and I'm gonna guess under the covering is maple as well, as it certainly doesn't look like mahogany from the edge.








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