An abridged article on dating Ludwig Drums...

Let’s have a look now at some numbers. Below is Ludwig 1960’s Serial Number Time Chart #1. It contains particular number/date stamp pairs chosen from our original serial number index because they serve as good representations of the chronological trend of the serial number sequence. By using this chart, you will be able to know in most cases the year, and time frame within the year, that your 1960’s Ludwig drum was made. For additional clarification we have included a few serial number/date stamp pairs provided by helpful collectors.

Ludwig 1960’s Serial Number Time Chart #1
DATE SERIAL NUMBER
1960 to late 1963 no serial numbers used
February 24, 1964 12,219
April, 1964 31,505
April, 1965 142,581
July 6, 1965 171,268
October, 1965 233,838
March 19, 1966 308,863
August 30, 1966 361,292
November, 1966 390,690
March, 1967 427,211
June, 1967 493,426
November 15, 1967 519,728
February 6, 1968 578,990
June 21, 1968 604,865
November, 1968 650,521
January, 1969 673,078
February 26, 1969 689,430
September 4, 1969 743,080


Here’s how to use the chart:

Taking as an example a non-date stamped drum with the serial number of 718,321, lets first find the proximate serial numbers to 718,321 - which are 689,430 and 743,080 respectively. Next, check the corresponding dates to these serial numbers - which are February 26, 1969 and September 4, 1969. These two dates indicate the general time frame when our non-date stamped drum was made.

Keep in mind when using the chart that due to Ludwig’s production, assembly and order-fulfillment procedures during the 60’s (discussion following the next chart) it’s not uncommon to find a moderate margin of discrepancy in the serial number/date stamp relationship. For this reason, the production date of the drum you’re dating could actually be several months earlier or later than the chart indicates.

I once asked Mr. Ludwig why only some of the shells were date stamped? He explained, "The reasons varied over the years. Sometimes it was because we wanted to accommodate certain dealers who didn't want the dates. Other times it was to keep up our production speed so that we could keep up with the demand. And sometimes it was just because the stamp pads ran out of ink."

Furthermore, not all of the dates that went on the drums stayed on the drums. **** Gerlack, who recently retired from the Ludwig Drum Company as their quality control manager/ trainer/ buyer, was with the drum company from 1960 to 2001. He pointed out to me that because Ludwig used non-indelible ink for the stamping of the dates, some dates were inadvertantly smudged or removed - in part or whole – after the drums left the factory by drum owners while cleaning their drums.

The next Chart #2 gives an overview of the serial number sequence as it progressed from one year to the next. Using a simple formula, we have estimated, to the nearest thousand, the average count of serial numbers used for each individual year between 1964 and 1969. For those of you who enjoy mathematics, the formula is: 800,000 (the approximate aggregate of serial numbers used 1964 through 1969 based on our serial number index), divided by six (the quantity of years spanning 1964 through 1969), equals 133,000 (the average yearly increase in the serial number progression).

Based on this calculation, Chart #2 shows a cumulative yearly growth of 133,000 serial numbers from 1964 through 1969. Since each one of these serial numbers corresponds to one individual drum produced, then our 133,000 yearly estimate, if correct, would have to reconcile with Ludwig’s yearly tally of drums produced during that same period. To verify our calculations I asked both Mr. Ludwig and Mr. Gherlach how close our yearly serial number estimate was to the drum company’s yearly drum production output. Their respective answers were, "The 133,000 figure is extremely close to what we were doing" and "It’s right in the ballpark." When using chart 2, keep in mind that these serial numbers are close indicators only, i.e. the serial numbers marking the beginning and ending of each year cannot be distinctly established due to Ludwig's factory procedures just mentioned, and the discrepancies that those procedures caused in the serial number/date stamp-relationship.

Ludwig 1960’s Serial Number Time Chart #2
DATE SERIAL NUMBER
1960 to late 1963 no serial numbers used
1964 0 – 133,000
1965 133,000 – 266,000
1966 266,000 – 399,000
1967 399,000 – 532,000
1968 532,000 – 665,000
1969 665,000 – 798,000*
* Note: At approximately the 750,000 mark in the serial number sequence, Ludwig discontinued the brass Keystone badge and replaced it with the blue and olive parallelogram-shaped badge.



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