Clive Burr Ludwig drum kit

76rocker

New Member
Hi guys.....looking for info on Clives Ludwig kit from the first two Iron Maiden albums......through pictures on the net it appears to be the 6 ply Ludwig shells because there are no reinforcement rings but I don’t see the triangular tom mount so I’m confused....it also looks like Tama mounts on the toms....could it be that Ludwig made 3 plys without the reinforcement rings? I’m pretty boggled by this because I thought I knew my Ludwig stuff.....
 

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man...Clive was one of my first big influences; I sometimes set up my current kit like his in honor of him

subscribing to thread b/c I am interested in this topic aswell
 
My guess is he special ordered Ludwig shells without any mounts and then used Tama hardware on that kit.
 
Hi guys.....looking for info on Clives Ludwig kit from the first two Iron Maiden albums......through pictures on the net it appears to be the 6 ply Ludwig shells because there are no reinforcement rings but I don’t see the triangular tom mount so I’m confused....it also looks like Tama mounts on the toms....could it be that Ludwig made 3 plys without the reinforcement rings? I’m pretty boggled by this because I thought I knew my Ludwig stuff.....
IIRC you would not find factory-made 3 ply Ludwigs without reinforcing rings.

When you refer to the "triangular" tom mount I take it you're referring to the Modular 1" tom mounts that Ludwig used in the 80s.

1643205388958.png

These were not the only tom mounts available for the Classic Maple 6 ply drums at the time. It was (and still is) possible to order them with the old L-style mounts used on the 3-ply drums as well. They were very similar to Tama's mounting system in many ways and predated it.

This is a 70's vintage Classic Maple 6-ply with that classic mounting system.

1643205794558.png
1643205819486.png
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08” × 08” Tom
10” × 10” Tom
12” × 12” Tom
13” × 13” Tom
16” × 16” Floor Tom
18” × 16” Floor Tom
22” × 16” Bass Drum
14”x6.5” (Ludwig Black Beauty Snare)
Ludwig kits: Burr had 2 Ludwig Maple drum sets; the earlier in an off-white colour, the later in white cortex. His 2nd kit used the same sizes as his Tama, minus the gong drum and octobans. His 1st Ludwig kit, which he usually played without bottom heads, had the same sizes as his second, but without the 8" tom, and a 14" added after the 13".
 
IIRC you would not find factory-made 3 ply Ludwigs without reinforcing rings.

When you refer to the "triangular" tom mount I take it you're referring to the Modular 1" tom mounts that Ludwig used in the 80s.

View attachment 113597

These were not the only tom mounts available for the Classic Maple 6 ply drums at the time. It was (and still is) possible to order them with the old L-style mounts used on the 3-ply drums as well. They were very similar to Tama's mounting system in many ways and predated it.

This is a 70's vintage Classic Maple 6-ply with that classic mounting system.

View attachment 113598
View attachment 113599
View attachment 113600
That, is great store. Local, lots of knowledge, and cymbals galore.
 
The drums in the first pic look like 6-ply shells for sure. As for the tom mounts, they do look like Tama mounts, and I know from experience that the hole spacing between a Ludwig Classic bracket and the Tama bracket is pretty close. He might have requested no mounts on his toms directly from Ludwig and drilled them himself for the Tama brackets, or just enlarged one screw hole and added the Tama bracket.

Hardware was one place where Ludwig was really behind the times in the late 70s/early 80s and a lot of heavy hitters (or anyone that set up and tore down a lot) needed better equipment. That meant changing companies or changing hardware, and it seems like both were pretty common around that time.
 
The drums in the first pic look like 6-ply shells for sure. As for the tom mounts, they do look like Tama mounts, and I know from experience that the hole spacing between a Ludwig Classic bracket and the Tama bracket is pretty close. He might have requested no mounts on his toms directly from Ludwig and drilled them himself for the Tama brackets, or just enlarged one screw hole and added the Tama bracket.

Hardware was one place where Ludwig was really behind the times in the late 70s/early 80s and a lot of heavy hitters (or anyone that set up and tore down a lot) needed better equipment. That meant changing companies or changing hardware, and it seems like both were pretty common around that time.
Indeed, most new Gretsch kits in the UK at that time had Premier tom holders and spurs for that precise reason.
 
08” × 08” Tom
10” × 10” Tom
12” × 12” Tom
13” × 13” Tom
16” × 16” Floor Tom
18” × 16” Floor Tom
22” × 16” Bass Drum
14”x6.5” (Ludwig Black Beauty Snare)
Ludwig kits: Burr had 2 Ludwig Maple drum sets; the earlier in an off-white colour, the later in white cortex. His 2nd kit used the same sizes as his Tama, minus the gong drum and octobans. His 1st Ludwig kit, which he usually played without bottom heads, had the same sizes as his second, but without the 8" tom, and a 14" added after the 13".
The snare on the first pic is an Eddie Ryan Custom as used by a lot of pro UK drummers at that time, the large square lugs are a giveaway, though obviously he used the BB as well.
 
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08” × 08” Tom
10” × 10” Tom
12” × 12” Tom
13” × 13” Tom
16” × 16” Floor Tom
18” × 16” Floor Tom
22” × 16” Bass Drum
14”x6.5” (Ludwig Black Beauty Snare)
Ludwig kits: Burr had 2 Ludwig Maple drum sets; the earlier in an off-white colour, the later in white cortex. His 2nd kit used the same sizes as his Tama, minus the gong drum and octobans. His 1st Ludwig kit, which he usually played without bottom heads, had the same sizes as his second, but without the 8" tom, and a 14" added after the 13".
I always like that kit.
If those were the sizes on the Ludwig kit, then it was a really custom kit.
I'm not saying the listed sizes are wrong-with Ludwig anything could have been done as a one off back then, but, Ludwig hasn't ever had square sizes (generally) available in anything but 14 and 16" floor toms.
No mounts would have been an easy request back then, or popping on Tama mounts in place of the Ludwig mounts.

Changing things out from other makers used to be a normal thing, before the 90's when everyone seemed to have to have everything from one maker--probably for resale.
 
08” × 08” Tom
10” × 10” Tom
12” × 12” Tom
13” × 13” Tom
16” × 16” Floor Tom
18” × 16” Floor Tom
22” × 16” Bass Drum
14”x6.5” (Ludwig Black Beauty Snare)
Ludwig kits: Burr had 2 Ludwig Maple drum sets; the earlier in an off-white colour, the later in white cortex. His 2nd kit used the same sizes as his Tama, minus the gong drum and octobans. His 1st Ludwig kit, which he usually played without bottom heads, had the same sizes as his second, but without the 8" tom, and a 14" added after the 13".
This is slightly incorrect - the Ludwig kit had shallower toms, and the Tama kit also had either an additional 18x20" floor tom and/or a 22" gong bass at times in addition to the octobans.

I also haven't seen any hard evidence that there were actually two separate Ludwig kits - the "off white" look in early pictures seems like it could be due to stage lighting and the low-light limitations of cameras at the time. Ludwig also didn't offer an "off white" finish, so it seems logical that he's actually using the same white cortex kit the whole time.


An easy way to ID the rack tom sizes is by counting the lugs - in the '80s, Ludwig included extra lugs on most sizes of power toms, 8" drums had the standard 4 lugs, while 10" had 6 lugs, 12" and 13" had 8 lugs, and 14" toms had 10 lugs.

In this picture, he's using the Ludwig kit - 9x10", 11x12", 12x13", and 13x14" toms with 16x16" and 16x18" floors and a 16x22" kick drum:

clive burr.jpeg

And here's a pic of the same kit, with a 9x8", 9x10", 11x12", 13x13" setup - the largest tom only has 8 lugs, which means it can't be the 14":
3wb0uumu52e51.png

Here's a picture of him in a studio with a 3-tom setup consisting of 9x10", 11x12", and 12x13" toms - presumably the 9x8" would occupy that upper right spot above the 9x10" like in the above live photo, but was moved for the photo opp.

87279f09f5f9da7f0ccdc7749cb04ee0.jpeg
 
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These pics belong in this thread...

The Ludwig kit:

clive burr Ludwig.jpg
The Tama kit:
Clive burr tama.jpg
 
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