Vintage Cocktail kits

matthew medeiros · Post by **matthew medeiros** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:19 pm

I have to admit, I love not only vintage cocktail kits but vintage drums. I like to try and keep things vintage if I have a choice, my vintage stuff must be playable. I like to look through the old posts, and if you haven't seen the vintage Ludwig set of Dave Randall's, (post from your cocktail set jun24, '04) you all should go back & check it out. Nice lookin vintage set, and when he added a snare, he matched the original set. I've got ta give him kudos for that. I've recently had a 5 x 12 silver sparkle made to blend with my silver sparkle club Jordan set, will try to post a pic of the drum when I get a chance.

scott · Post by **scott** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:54 pm

check this out if you like old sets...

http://cgi.ebay.com/70S-LUDWIG-VISTALIT ... dZViewItem

Post by **jmettam** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:41 am

I just uploaded these to the gllery. Cool cutsom kit!

matthew medeiros · Post by **matthew medeiros** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 6:08 pm

VERY cool set that vistalite

Is it a custom kit (custom finish for sure) or is it a Vistalite kit minus the bass drum? Did you notice the old style tom mount clip on the side of the snare drum?, interesting. What is the name of the finish?

robertm · Post by **robertm** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:22 pm

Isn't the bass/floor tom here just a bass drum that's been laid on its side, had leg brackets put on, and a bass rim replaced with a regular rim? I seem to remember hearing how a lot of Ludwig sets had the smaller 20 inch or even 18 inch bass drums and how the owners really liked the compactness of such a set.

matthew medeiros · Post by **matthew medeiros** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:45 pm

robertm wrote:Isn't the bass/floor tom here just a bass drum that's been laid on its side, had leg brackets put on, and a bass rim replaced with a regular rim? I seem to remember hearing how a lot of Ludwig sets had the smaller 20 inch or even 18 inch bass drums and how the owners really liked the compactness of such a set.

To me, it looks like sombody modified a floor tom?? The current seller states in his e bay ad that the original owner had the set "custom made" at Ludwig. That could mean ordering the set minus the original bass drum, especially if the purchaser worked at Ludwig like the e bay ad says. Oh well, an interesting bit of history. I went back & re-read the ad. it says 20" Bass drum, I guess it could have been made that way. Ad also says that the original owner was a Ludwig employee & had the set custom made that way for himself, would be a great bit of history if that could be authenticated.

Post by **jmettam** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:38 am

This is like the 'Combo Be-Bop' convertible kit that slingerland made. Look here:

http://cocktaildrum.com/catalogs/SL55P05.JPG

- John

multiperc · Post by **multiperc** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:03 am

just more speculation here...

The bigdrum looks to me like a 14x20 bass drum - note what appears to be about 3 inches of clearance on each side of 14" snare shown in the stacked pic. 14x20 was the smaller of the 2 typical "standard" sizes from Ludwig in that era. 14" was typical depth for almost all kit bass drums from them. See the ludwig combo kit, for example:

http://www.cocktaildrum.com/catalogs.html#

Also note the head seating and collars on the "toms" - aren't those the drum kit bongos Ludwig made to include in their more expansive kits of the early 70's? I think so.

I recall something about the opaque white/black acrylic finish in that it had a limited run and drum sets with that finish are pretty rare. If that's the case and those 'rare' drums can be dated, it would ideantify the approximate date of these drums.

But what's crazy for me is that Slingerland BeBop kit shown has an 18x20 bigdrum - the same bass drum size I use today in my GMS kit. The old Slingy probably sounded significantly different from mine due to manufacturing design, heads, wood and materials used, tho.

Post by **jmettam** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:12 pm

Yes, those are Bongos not regular toms!

It seems obvious to me that the guy who ordered this kit wanted something similar to the Slingerland Combo Be-Bop, just made out of vistalite and then also with the added bongos.

A very cool kit indeed. Certainly one-of-a-kind!

- John

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:25 pm

Matt, Thanks for the kind words on my cocktail kit..........check out the rest of my vintage Ludwig gold sparkle collection from the 60's now on my blog: www.bluesjams.blogspot.com Dave

cocktaildrum.com