I purchased a 26x14 Ludwig and Ludwig white badge 1930’s bass drum in 2022. It was actually manufactured by C.G. Conn who had purchased Ludwig & Ludwig and the Leedy company in 1929. Conn continued to manufacture these drums using the names Ludwig and Ludwig and Leedy for many years.
This bass drum had a white enamel finish that was faded but relatively still intact so I decided to leave the finish alone. As a result, I made the assumption that it was a 3-ply maple/poplar/maple as they usually painted maple exteriors with paint. Maple wood is far superior to other woods i.e. birch, mahogany or poplar due to its tight grain structure. The paint adheres uniformly without absorbing unevenly. The inside wood is clearly maple as they just put a clear coat on it to seal it.
Both hoops were in poor condition so I sanded and painted them with white enamel spray paint. This gave the drum a nice finished look despite the fact that the hoops were white and the drum itself was faded due to age. The original hardware was nickel but I wanted to give it a “Ludwig Deluxe” finish. I wasn’t willing to have the hardware professionally finished so I bought an antique copper spray to restore the hardware myself. This way, I can always sand the hardware again and have it professionally done in the future.
The lugs are 9 ¼” tube lugs with “baseball bat” style 5” tension rods and claws that were introduced in the mid 1930’s. The bass drum spurs are clip on #350 which were made from 1927 – 1929.
This drum has a beautiful bottom end maple sound reminiscent of the 1970’s Ludwig hard rock maple finish drums. A good example of this is Bonzo’s green sparkle bass drum sound. I’m going to put this bass drum together with other 1970’s Ludwig 3-ply maple drums to create an amazing sounding hybrid drum set. I often create unmatched drum kits to get the sound I want.
I have attached a number of pictures of the finished bass drum. I have also included a picture of a Black Diamond Pearl kit I use that includes a bass drum from the 1940’s and toms from the 1970’s. It sounds amazing.
Danny Bilan
“Our Man in Canada”