New Black Beauty, No Serial

A

AJSmith

Junior Member
Okay, so, I used a sale as an excuse to throw money at a Ludwig Black Beauty about a month ago. Over the past week, out of curiosity, I started checking the serial numbers on my cymbals and drums just to estimate their age, but when I got to the BB there was no serial number on the badge. It's a keystone badge, and I'm fairly certain the drum was not pre-owned. The hardware was fresh, the heads were unplayed, and there's a ludwig barcoded sticker inside the drum shell.
Ludwig is not a company you can reach, and there's not a lot of information on dating a modern black beauty. Can anyone help?
 
B stock Ludwig drums do not have serial numbers on the badges. B stock drums have very small cosmetic problems which don't affect the sound of the drum. Since they don't sell them at full price, they don't put badged serial numbers on them.

As far as I know, Ludwig usually assigns a cut B/O badge to the B stock drums. Perhaps they now use the other badge as well.

Enjoy your drum!!
 
I just got a new LM400t a couple of weeks ago, has the keystone badge, no number. It is not B stock, shipped straight from Ludwig through DCP, paid full price. They now have stickers on the inside with the SN#. Don't know if they but numbers on keystone badge drums now.
 
As a follow up, I called MDS, and they have a bunch of new supras with the keystone badges, none have number on the badge. They all have serial number stickers on the inside. I would guess that numbers are getting too large to put on regular badges, and it is cheaper to put a label on the inside than make a big badge. Not a bad moove really, but B sock would be labeled as such, or they put the B/O badge on B stock.
 
New BB's with keystones have the serial on the inside. My BB is a ~2014 and is like this.
 
Thank you for the replies. I'll try looking up the numbers on the sticker.
 
Hey all!, surprised at all this feed back! Greatly appreciated. Just so i'm understanding this input.
Serial # is.. (BE1037503)
1.Can this # tell- if this is a soilid brass drum, nickel plated? Owner believes its solid brass, that seems strange.
2. Age of Drum
3. Looks to be 10 Lug. That's good, right?
Thanks, Bammer
 
The serial numbers are now only on the sticker inside. Ludwig could tell you the exact manufacturing date and components based off of that number, but I don't know how to translate the number (if I remember correctly, some digits of the number are a coded date). If it's a black beauty, then it's brass, black nickel plated. They are all 10 lug.
 
Bammer said:
Hey all!, surprised at all this feed back! Greatly appreciated. Just so i'm understanding this input.
Serial # is.. (BE1037503)
1.Can this # tell- if this is a soilid brass drum, nickel plated? Owner believes its solid brass, that seems strange.
2. Age of Drum
3. Looks to be 10 Lug. That's good, right?
Thanks, Bammer
Click to expand...

BB's are spun brass. It is plated in black nickel. The specs are on Ludwig's site.
10 lugs are standard

Here's what it looks like when a alloy is spun. While this isn't a Ludwig, and it's not brass, you'll still hear the endearing familial traits of a spun alloy drum in the background.

 
Wow...This is Great! So many of you have reached out with all kinds of perfect information concerning this Used BB purchase forthcoming.

I'm in the $600 range. Wondering if I should bite the bullet and just go new since I'm close. Any thoughts to that?

Just thinking that way I know what I'm getting butt I'm paying way to much as well.

Really to all that have responded a Big Thank You! It's nice getting sound feedback.

Happy New Year, Bammer
 
Bammer said:
I'm in the $600 range. Wondering if I should bite the bullet and just go new since I'm close. Any thoughts to that?
Click to expand...

Brass and steel do not diminish with age. There's nothing wrong with a used BB outside of being potentially damaged or cosmetically abused.

If you have the opportunity to buy in-person and can inspect, or are able to purchase through a trusted retailer (not eBay/Reverb/etc), go for it. Even GuiterCenter's used inventory contains several dozen of them. You should be looking at $500.
 
Many larger retailers offer B-stock or A-stock demo Black Beauties all the time for prices well within your range.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top