Cooper’s Vintage Drums
LUDWIG LUGS
1923-1965
The
Imperial Lug
Like the other drum companies
during the early 1920’s, The Ludwig & Ludwig Drum Company used tubular lugs
on their snare drums.
Bass drums
of the 1920’s and early 1930’s used long tube lugs as well as single and double
center support studs.
During the 1930’s, a somewhat primitive
lug was used on tom toms.
The use of tube lugs would
remain unchanged until 1936, when Ludwig (now owned by G.C. Conn) introduced
their new “Imperial” or “Streamline” snare drum lug casing. Considered by many
to be the most elegant lug ever designed, the Imperial tension casing
incorporated a beautiful and majestic art deco design. Like the original
Slingerland Streamline lug, it too had the threads tapped directly into the
metal casing and suffered from the same thread design flaw as the Slingerland
Streamline lug from that era. Ludwig & Ludwig still used the aforementioned
tom tom lugs until around 1939. The Imperial lugs were not incorporated into
bass drum design until around 1937-1938.
1936
Ludwig & Ludwig Catalog showing the Imperial lug
1936
Ludwig & Ludwig Silver Anniversary model
By 1937, the lug was given an
internal spring and swivel inserts similar to those of Slingerland and Leedy.
This beautiful lug would see continual use throughout the next decade and a very
similar version is still in use today.
1937
Ludwig & Ludwig Imperial Lug with threaded inserts and spring
The Imperial lug was also used
on bass drums and tom toms in the late 1930’s. Single as well as double ended
lugs were offered.
A very long, double ended
version of the Imperial lug was also offered for Ludwig’s top of the line bass
drums starting around 1937. (This long lug was still in use in the 1960’s-70’s
on concert models)
1930’s
extra long Ludwig & Ludwig Imperial bass drum lug
Center support studs were still used on some
single tension bass drum models like the Artist’s Model and Pioneer Model.
“PLASTIC”
LUGS
In 1939, Ludwig & Ludwig
experimented with Bake-Lite (early plastic) lugs on their “Modern Bi-Tone
drums”. These lugs came in a few different colors and contained metal interior parts.
The Bake-Lite outer cover was just a façade. The Bake-Lite lug was quite
fragile and this “experiment” did not last long! Very few examples exist today.
1939-1941
Bi-Tone Bake-Lite lug
MODERN BI-TONE DRUM SET
Around 1940, a new lug was
designed and was offered as a less expensive option. This lug was called the
Airline Tension Casing and was also used by Leedy during the same time. It was used
on Timbales, and single headed tom toms. Leedy used the Airline casing on some
snare drum models (see Leedy Lugs).
AIRLINE
TENSION CASING
1940-41
CATALOG
World
War Two and Ludwig & Ludwig
Like Slingerland and Leedy,
Ludwig & Ludwig had to adapt to the WWII metal restriction order and
produced some interesting drums during that period. The “Victory” line was
launched featuring solid maple lugs.
1943
Ludwig & Ludwig Victory Model with wooden lugs and hoops
POST-WAR
LUDWIG
After the war was over, drum
production resumed and the post-war drums were basically the same as the early
1940’s products with no major hardware changes. Below are some images from the
1948 catalog:
Ludwig
& Ludwig continued the use of the old tube lugs on their lower-line “Artist”
drums.
LUDWIG
MERGES WITH LEEDY
In 1950, C.G. Conn’s two drum
divisions were merged to form the Leedy
& Ludwig drum company. The “new” Leedy & Ludwig drums were mainly
Leedy drums with a few Ludwig & Ludwig hardware pieces. Being that both
lines were manufactured by the same company, this is not surprising. The old
classic Imperial lug was relegated to lower line drums like the Reliance model
snare drum.
1951 LEEDY & LUDWIG RELIANCE
MODEL
Knob
Tension Drums
In 1951 a new revolutionary
line of drums called the “Knob Tension” drums was launched. These Knob Tension
drums employed a unique tensioning system in which the need for tension casings
(lugs) was eliminated. By turning a series of knobs mounted on the shell,
internal mechanical parts exerted pressure on the drum heads from within. While
this design may have been a great concept, in actual practice it was less than
spectacular. The overly complicated design proved to be fragile and many of the
parts would fail. Thus, the Knob Tension drums proved to be a failure and never
caught on with drummers of the early 1950’s. In the 1954 Leedy & Ludwig
catalog, the Knob Tension line is noticeably absent. The Knob Tension “debacle”
definitely contributed to the demise of the Leedy & Ludwig Drum Company.
After 24 years in the drum
manufacturing business, G.C. Conn decided to sell their entire drum division,
which included Ludwig & Ludwig, as well as Leedy. In 1954-55, the Leedy
name was purchased by the Slingerland Drum Company and Ludwig & Ludwig was
acquired by William F. Ludwig, owner of the W.F.L. Drum Company. Under the
direction of William F. Ludwig, the drums of the new Ludwig Drum Company were
basically W.F.L. drums with a different name on the old Keystone badge.
During the
1950’s, Ludwig used three different types of tension casings on their snare drums.
The “Streamline” lug pictured below was offered on all of their six and eight
lug snare drums with the exception of the “Jazz-Combo” and “Down Beat models.
These two snare drums utilized a unique horizontally mounted lug called the
“Be-Bop”.
Early
1960’s Ludwig Super Classic snare drum with separate tension “Streamline” lugs
“Jazz-
Combo” with six specially designed horizontal “Be-Bop” tension casings
“Symphonic”
Model featuring 16 “Classic” tension casings
All top of the line Ludwig bass
drums and tom toms were fitted with “Classic” tension casings, with the
exception of large concert models and lower line, budget priced Club Date
models. The Club Date drums had the Streamline snare drum lugs mounted on the
center of the drum shell.
Super
Classic Tom Tom with Classic tension casings
Oddly, Ludwig did not offer a
metal shell drum until around 1959-60. At that time, the venerable Imperial lug
was again brought out for use on what would become one of the most successful snare
drums in history- “The Ludwig Supraphonic”.
1960’s
Supraphonic snare drum with ten Imperial lugs
Below
are the various bass drum rods and claws that were used by Ludwig from the
1920’s through the 1960’s.
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