I was just looking at some vintage sets in a German vintage drum shop (
www.magicdrum.de) and detected the Jazzette. For some sets the depth was 12"...for one green sparkle Jazzette the bass drum depth was missing...so I was wondering.
Are those made from Mahagoni btw? African Mahagoni...or a completely different wood?
You're welcome Karl!
For the most part, any 1960's Ludwig, with "Classic Shells," should be 3-ply, African Mahogany / Poplar / African Mahogany for the Toms with Maple / Poplar / Maple on the Bass, both types having Rock Maple Re-Rings. In the very late 60's Ludwig did start switching over from Mahogany to Maple, eventually phasing the Mahogany out of the picture.............
With that said, I'm not so sure about the Shells on the Jazzette, which was Ludwig's "Top of the Line Outfit" while it was around............
Below you will see it's Catalog debut, which it made in 1966.
To purists, this configuration, with one of the listed finishes, is the true Jazzette and is probably the most sought after Ludwig Outfit today.
Most "Jazzette" Kit's one comes across were either ordered as individual Drums, kinda like a Kit Builder deal, or pieced together from different Kits over the years.......
The Jazzette remained this way in the Catalogs until around 1974, at that time the description was changed a little reading "High Quality Shells," with a Mahogany Cortex Finish shown. The sizes remained the same but this was the last time that the Jazzette was shown with the 18-inch Bass Drum. The next time it was shown, which I think was the last, was 1978 and by then it was simply a re-named Downbeat (14 x 20, 8 x 12 & 14 x 14,) the 12 x 18 Bass wasn't even listed as a component Drum in 1978. BIG had finally taken over........
Here is the Jazzette as it appeared near the end of it's run, after "stealing" the Downbeat's configuration and kicking it out of the line-up.
Note 6-ply (Maple / Poplar) Uni-Mold Shells, which Ludwig started using around 1976.
LVDC