Greetings vintage drum lovers and friends. I hope the Winter is on the way out and nicer warm weather is on the way in. I brought out a set out into the sunlight to show you that I try to keep in the dark as much as possible. It is a 1971 Ludwig Hollywood set covered with the rare Mod Orange wrap. The reason I keep them in the dark is to try to keep the color from fading even more than it already has. This color is one of the three Ludwig psychedelic wraps that caused quite a stir in the late 1960s and on into the 1970s. You have to be around 50 or older to understand why anything psychedelic was cool. The three psychedelic colors were, Psychedelic Red, Mod Orange, and Citrus Mod. These wraps are filled with color, but unfortunately they fade when exposed to sunlight. It is hard to find a set with these wraps on them that is not partially or severely faded.
My set is faded and has some cracks in the wrap and bumps and bruises. When you get a chance to own a Mod Orange set you will overlook a few flaws, because there are not that many sets out there to be had. The Reds are a little more plentiful. Ludwig did really well selling the Reds and then introduced the Oranges. The Oranges didn't sell as well as the Reds, even though John Densmore helped their sales by playing a set of Oranges with the Doors. The Doors were very cool, but you already know that. The Citrus Mods did even worse in sales than the Oranges and therefore they are even harder to find. A nice set of Citrus Mods will cost you big bucks.
The sizes of my Mod Orange kit is, bass drum 22"X14", the floor tom 16"X16", the toms are 13"X9" and 12"X8". The shells are three ply with reinforcement rings and clear coated inside. The white sealer paint inside the shells ended in the late 1960s. The toms have the rotary mute inside with the larger round handles outside the shell. The double tom mount is factory placed on the bass drum. There is a paper badge inside the shell that dates them to 1971. The Blue Olive badges are pointy on the corners which indicates early 1970s. The snare drum placed with the set is a 1970s 14"X5" chrome Supraphonic. It is very hard to find a wood shell Mod Orange snare. If you do you will pay a large ransom for it. Some Mod Orange snares have been recover jobs using a strip from a donor floor tom. Be careful when buying a Mod Orange snare drum.
Ludwig reintroduced the Mod Orange finish a few years back, but I think the results were about the same as the first time. I guess we will just have to say it's so ugly it's kinda pretty. You might still be able to purchase a version of this wrap if you would like to have this finish on a restoration job. Some have found Mod Orange wrapped drums that have been painted over. Can you imagine buying a pawn shop white painted Ludwig set and finding Mod Orange wrap underneath the paint. It will be difficult to remove the paint and not damage the finish. Get a professional to help you with that. Until next time, use cases and stop scratching up those future vintage kits, and keep searching for that Mod Orange Jazz Festival in somebody's yard sale.