This was my most challenging restoration to date.. by a long shot. Just about every fly that could have buzzed along into the ointment here, did just that!
Introduced in 1927, Ludwigold finish was Ludwig & Ludwig’s response to Leedy’s 1926 introduction of Pyralin wrap, a nitrocellulose finish originally developed by the Arlington Company and later acquired by Dupont. By 1928 however, L&L was also using Pyralin on its drum shells, a move that ultimately spelled the end of the line for the short-lived and thus, relatively rare Ludwigold offering.
This project began in mid-December of 2024, when I responded to an online ad for a wood shelled Ludwigold 6.5 X 14 Super-Ludwig snare drum. The finish was almost completely gone but the hardware appeared to be pretty much complete. I’d never actually seen an original example of this finish in its non-aged condition and decided to give this one a go. After a few messages back and forth with the seller, the deal was sealed and payment made.
While the seller began the process of re-plating all hardware in copper as agreed upon in our terms, I began trialling different coating products and effects on wood blanks, to most accurately reproduce the Ludwigold finish. I found the original colour a bit difficult to pin down as I’d previously seen everything from light gold to milk chocolate brown on current day survivors. Ultimately, I chose to ‘go by the book,’ with representative illustrations from both the 1927 and 1928 Ludwig & Ludwig catalogs.
A lot of time, energy and money (!) later, I was finally ready to take the finish from over two dozen coatings trials, to the actual shell. At that stage, I couldn’t help but feel I’d personally experienced, much of the original L&L development program for its Ludwigold finish.
Before that eventuality though, I needed to address an out-of-round ‘eggshell’ condition that ranged a full 1/2 inch from side to side. Here, I used a technique I’d developed about thirty years previous when I restored some water-damaged Premier Royal Scot marching snares. While this process corrected most of the out-of-round condition, I realized the drum heads I planned to use would still not fit the oversized shell. Knowing this was a very beefy, one-piece maple shell, I decided to ‘round it out’ some more with an orbital sander and #60 grit, so that its final diameter was no more than 14 inches at any given point. This was also important, knowing I would probably be adding a further 10 mils (10/1000”) plus thickness of various coating products to produce the final finish.
I first applied a high solids filling primer to completely fill in the wood grain, followed by a commercial textured coating to effect the irregular surface feature of this finish. The intermediate and final colour coats were achieved with an antique brass lacquer finish, onto which I sprinkled brass metal flakes. I then repeated this application sequence a few more times to add depth of finish, before applying a clear lacquer to produce the final ‘satin smooth’ appearance and feel. Additionally, each piece of the copper re-plated hardware was then treated with my ‘aged patina’ process to simulate almost 100-year-old Deluxe finish.
Note: While the brass metal flake in the final finished coating really ‘pops’ in the sunlight and under lights, it was a bit disappointing to discover the optics of my iPhone 16 camera were not able to fully do it justice for the photo. For reference, each of the many thousands of lighter, whitish flecks in the finish are actually, tiny irregular pieces of brass metal flake.
I’d like to give a special thanks here to Bill Wanser, Mike Curotto and Bob Campbell for their invaluable input along the way as I wrestled with colour, texture and visual effects in the development of this reproduction Ludwigold finish.
This restoration was truly a labour of love and sweat but at the end of the day, my most satisfying one over the past thirty years. It’s very gratifying to see this grand old beauty finally off the bench and into my collection, back in fine form to sparkle and play on for another hundred years