For the record, I do not think that the badge and throw are original to this drum. It's possible, but I think that they were primarily selling Acrolites and Supras during that era. I think you have an old drum with a newer badge and throw.Also, you said this:"Hmm, I wonder what condition the original wrap is under the drum" as it was pretty obvious that the original cortex was still on the shell. Cortex is a Ludwig rebranding of formica, basically. They didn't start using Cortex until the '70s. This drum has an outer ply of just straight mahogany. Ludwig used some sort of clear lacquer primer to fill the grain a little (it may even have been shellac), then sprayed on a clear coat of nitrocellulose lacquer.For a lot of these drums, especially their higher end kits, they made shells with a maple outer ply. During the WFL era and early-keystone badge era, they used maple outer ply drums specifically for "duco" finishes for their top-of-the-line drums: sprayed on lacquer finishes. This is because mahogany soaks up a lot of lacquer and you end up with a raised, textured finish. The less expensive Pioneer and student snares (is yours six lug? I'd bet money that it's got six lugs and not eight) have the lacquered mahogany, slightly bumpy finish.Duco:Finished mahogany outer ply:

four\_oclocker\_2 wrote:Ahh, this is all very interesting!Yep, definitely a 6 lug snare. My initial thought of it being a 70s was three-fold - 1. Clear interior, not white or granitone.2. Throw-off.3. Serial number on the badge, which throws it on the earlier end of that delightful "1972-1976 mystery-era" where the serial numbers went undocumented on a yearly basis.I do know that they were making the Pioneers until 1974, BUT, it does look like it is just stained mahogany and not a wrap like I thought (though there's still a visible seam on the wood.) And yep, that little bit of "cosmetic" work is right where the muffler would have been. I'll try to upload some more photos tonight, but my thought is currently leaning towards just sanding it down and leaving it "unwrapped" for the time being. Thanks for checking it out!Oh, MAN. Clear interior raises all sorts of interesting questions: Is it a clear maple interior or a clear mahogany interior with maple reinforcement rings? If it's the former, then it may very well be '70s. If it's the latter, you have a WFL snare, which would be SWEEEET.The badge and the throw are exactly the parts that I thought were replaced. If it's a mahogany interior, then the lugs and hoops may have been replaced, too. (if WFL, then those parts would have been nickel.) You may have a WFL shell with '70s parts. I could see someone replacing all of the parts on a newer Ludwig shell with the WFL parts, especially if the Ludwig shell was in better condition. They would then have a significantly more valuable snare, then. All the holes would have lined up, so no drilling.That said, the WFL shell will sound better, I think. If you determine that the drum is actually a WFL and those holes are the two holes needed for the baseball bat throw, I'd start lurking in the parts drawers of your local music stores. Eventually, you'll find one of these:I like the red best, but they also come in this color: You can pick them up for $10 if you get some hesher to ring you up.Then take a drill and very carefully drill out the holes and replace the muffler. you wrote:there's still a visible seam on the wood.That's just Ludwig's ply work. They weren't making jewelry, that's for sure. If it had been a wrap, there would have been a scarf joint where the wrap actually tucks under the top ply of the shell:One more thing:you also wrote:currently leaning towards just sanding it down and leaving it "unwrapped" for the time being. Please don't sand down the whole shell. I hope you just meant the patch. Taking that finish off the mahogany will make it more likely to absorb moisture and start expanding and contracting until it delaminates. That would be very sad.How's it sound? Some of these drums are GOLD. Especially the six lug ones, for some reason.

garthplinko wrote:dontfeartheringo wrote:Please don't sand down the whole shell. I hope you just meant the patch. Taking that finish off the mahogany will make it more likely to absorb moisture and start expanding and contracting until it delaminates. That would be very sad.Huh. this is good to know because it's exactly what I proposed up thread and what I would have done myself. I reckon that's why this thread is Professor Ringo's and not Butcher Garth's. Ringo, didn't you recently shoot black lacquer on an old drum though? dontfeartheringo wrote:How's it sound? Some of these drums are GOLD. Especially the six lug ones, for some reason.I'm sure drum nerds have a million bullshit opinions on this subject, but I'd think with less metal coupled to the shell, it's able to resonate more freely.Sanding down and resealing is different from sanding down and leaving it naked. If he's thinking of hitting it with a coat of shellac and nitro, hell yeah- it'll look great. There are few more interesting looking woods than finished mahogany. Definitely want to get a coat of some sort of clear primer/grain filler on there first, then lacquer, so you can buff it out to look like this:Or just do a satin finish and have it look like this:Or just leave it for now.There's a dignity to drums that have aged honestly. I love them when I see them. I just can't leave well enough alone on my own stuff, especially if it affects the drum's sound.I thought maybe he was thinking of sanding it down and leaving it raw, which could be disastrous.

Warm water with a drop of dishwashing soap. Or a warm wet rag with a drop of Murphy's Oil (wring the rag good). Elbow grease. You can also use Naphtha which is almost always safe for whatever you're using it on, but isn't the safest for you.EDIT: You should wring anything you use that has water, obviously, when using on a wooden drum.

Thanks for the head's up - it should show up now!

Ahh, this is all very interesting!Yep, definitely a 6 lug snare. My initial thought of it being a 70s was three-fold - 1. Clear interior, not white or granitone.2. Throw-off.3. Serial number on the badge, which throws it on the earlier end of that delightful 1972-1976 mystery-era where the serial numbers went undocumented on a yearly basis.I do know that they were making the Pioneers until 1974, BUT, it does look like it is just stained mahogany and not a wrap like I thought (though there's still a visible seam on the wood.) And yep, that little bit of cosmetic work is right where the muffler would have been. I'll try to upload some more photos tonight, but my thought is currently leaning towards just sanding it down and leaving it unwrapped for the time being. Thanks for checking it out!

Whoops! Yeah, I just meant smoothing out that patched part there. I highly doubt I'll be re-staining anything for the time-being. And yep, clear maple interior with the re-rings.



Sound is actually pretty great. As Garth suspects, the Pioneers tend to resonate a bit more than their 8-lug counterparts (I also picked up a white Vista Pioneer snare recently, which has all of the crack and just a bit more resonance to it as well.) One thing I am curious about is this - most of the major chunks of wood glue that this previous owner used to get the wrap on there came right off, but there's some smaller specks of it that I can't get off with just my hands. Any suggestions on the best solution to just wipe down the exterior of the shell of? Given that it's a stained finish, I certainly don't want to use something like 409 like I would a normal plastic wrap.

four\_oclocker\_2 wrote:Tonight, I got all the hardware off the drum, peeled the wrap back, and found this - YEOWWWWWWThat image doesn't show up for me. Looks like it's linked from a gmail message based on the URL, which won't work on this board.