"New" vs "old" Ludwig Breakbeats

roncadillac

Platinum Member
I see Ludwig revamped the breakbeats kit a bit. I see this most commonly referred to as the "2022 Breakbeats". According to their website they changed the hoops to wood, the bass drum claws are now die cast, and the wing nut has a different design, as well as I'm sure a few other updates.

Does anyone have any more info on this or experience with the 'old' vs the 'new'?

I'll be honest, I had one of the first gen breakbeats kits and it was the biggest POS I've ever wasted money on in my entire time playing drums. The hardware was garbage, the hoops were severely undersized, and the wing nuts stripped almost immediately. However I really liked the sizes of the kit.

If they did in fact update some of these failure points then I may be interested in revisiting the breakbeats.
 
There’s a dude around here that I used to play in a band with who has used a gen 1 Breakbeat kit for 4 or 5 years. I briefly entertained the idea but had similar concerns about reliability. But he still uses his regularly. Might revisit the idea but probably won’t ;)
 
There’s a dude around here that I used to play in a band with who has used a gen 1 Breakbeat kit for 4 or 5 years. I briefly entertained the idea but had similar concerns about reliability. But he still uses his regularly. Might revisit the idea but probably won’t ;)

The one that I had was just crazy, no other way to put it. At one point I bought a used first act child's drum set on craigslist way back when I first started dabbling with 16" bass drums and that thing had more reliable hardware and smooth consistent shells then the first gen breakbeats. The breakbeats kit had wing nuts strip... Well, I should say completely disintegrate into a pile of metal dust, upon their first use. The rims were as thin and flexible as sheet metal and really undersized. Also, the shells were slightly wider than what I was used to with the Tama, pearl, pork pie, taye, and mapex drums I played up to that point. Not much, talking millimeters, but enough. The shells were wide enough that heads didn't want to seat properly, and these were Evans heads with a wider collar design, and the rims were so tight they barely even fit on the naked shells without heads. The bass drum was pretty sweet though, I won't lie.

This lead me to pick up the pearl midtown which is a far superior kit in all aspects except for one tiny issue: the riser. I hate damn bass drum risers. The pearl midtown duckfoot style riser utilizes a mount drilled into the shell and has a cutout in the bass drum hoop. Even with 16" bass drums I like to plop them on the ground and attach a pedal to the hoop.
 
What about the TAMA Club Jam? I might would prefer that over the Breakbeats. I get you like the 16" bass, but at the end of the day, the Club Jam's 18"x12" is almost functionally smaller than the Breakbeats' 16"x14", right?
 
What about the TAMA Club Jam? I might would prefer that over the Breakbeats. I get you like the 16" bass, but at the end of the day, the Club Jam's 18"x12" is almost functionally smaller than the Breakbeats' 16"x14", right?
I had two club jam minis, one with the tom set and one without the Tom set (both 18x7), and currently own the PDP DJNY kit with a 18x10.
 
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Hey Ron C, check out this thread. I have a "2nd Generation" Breakbeats kit, which is between the original you had and the currently available models.

 
This lead me to pick up the pearl midtown which is a far superior kit in all aspects except for one tiny issue: the riser. I hate damn bass drum risers. The pearl midtown duckfoot style riser utilizes a mount drilled into the shell and has a cutout in the bass drum hoop. Even with 16" bass drums I like to plop them on the ground and attach a pedal to the hoop.
They can't be any worse than the originals. I thought about a Breakbeats until I saw one up close and they just looked cheap and flimsy, from your horror stories over the last few years with one it was definitely a bullet dodged.

Ludwig must've designed the Breakbeats as a kids kit and thrown marketing at it. Pearl on the other hand went lets shrink an export and build it to survive a nuclear holocaust.

I never had a problem with the midtown bass drum riser, I just used to mic the bass drum, I loved the fact I never had to port it or put any dampening in it.
 
I will state that in my "2nd Generation" Breakbeats kit (which I got used but in great shape), I didn't have any of the issues Ron C experienced. I took the drums completely apart, polished them and reassembled them. Everything was solid and no parts stripped or broke. I upgraded to a suspension mount on the rack tom and 2.3mm hoops on the toms/snare. I have been happy with it and have had no issues with reliability. The bearing edges were good and Remo heads fit easily with no problems.

Just to clarify, the original Breakbeats had foil sticker badges, a fairly bulky round bass drum tom mount receiver/holder and small, round clamp style brackets for the tom arm and floor tom legs. The 2nd generation had screw on badges, a more streamlined, rectangular tom mount receiver/holder and larger, rectangular clamp style brackets for the tom arm and floor tom legs. The new, current Breakbeats have wood bass hoops, a very streamlined diamond shape tom mount receiver/holder (similar to the 70's and 80's Ludwig tom receivers) and (what appears to be) the same small round clamp style brackets for the tom arm and floor tom legs as the 1st generation.
 
I will state that in my "2nd Generation" Breakbeats kit (which I got used but in great shape), I didn't have any of the issues Ron C experienced. I took the drums completely apart, polished them and reassembled them. Everything was solid and no parts stripped or broke. I upgraded to a suspension mount on the rack tom and 2.3mm hoops on the toms/snare. I have been happy with it and have had no issues with reliability. The bearing edges were good and Remo heads fit easily with no problems.

Just to clarify, the original Breakbeats had foil sticker badges, a fairly bulky round bass drum tom mount receiver/holder and small, round clamp style brackets for the tom arm and floor tom legs. The 2nd generation had screw on badges, a more streamlined, rectangular tom mount receiver/holder and larger, rectangular clamp style brackets for the tom arm and floor tom legs. The new, current Breakbeats have wood bass hoops, a very streamlined diamond shape tom mount receiver/holder (similar to the 70's and 80's Ludwig tom receivers) and (what appears to be) the same small round clamp style brackets for the tom arm and floor tom legs as the 1st generation.
Oh, so there’s three gens? Missed the first one. Now I get it.
 
I believe the one I had could be considered the "2nd generation". It had the screw on badges, the more rectangular bass drum tom mount, the larger clamp style leg brackets, but still had the metal hoop.

These are the only two pics I had of the kit:
IMG_20191120_155618714.jpg
IMG_20191120_091345552.jpg
 
The drummer of the band I heard last weekend played one and it sounded massive and full through the PA. No way that kit produced that sound. I was too far away to see much. He must have used triggers all around. I played one for an audition years ago. I was not impressed but considering the price, you can’t have high expectations. It did the job.
 
I believe the one I had could be considered the "2nd generation". It had the screw on badges, the more rectangular bass drum tom mount, the larger clamp style leg brackets, but still had the metal hoop.

These are the only two pics I had of the kit:

Yep, second generation fo sho. Sorry yours was such a dud. I'm really happy with mine.

These are great too-if you can ever find a used one at a reasonable price (many of them are overpriced for some reason). Same sizes as the Breakbeats, except the bass is a square 16" x 16". Comes with a 12" snare like the Manu Katche kit, but you could obviously use whatever snare you wanted instead.

 
Yep, second generation fo sho. Sorry yours was such a dud. I'm really happy with mine.

These are great too-if you can ever find a used one at a reasonable price (many of them are overpriced for some reason). Same sizes as the Breakbeats, except the bass is a square 16" x 16". Comes with a 12" snare like the Manu Katche kit, but you could obviously use whatever snare you wanted instead.

I actually prefer a 12" to 14" snare anyway haha
 
*update*

I just wanted to make a follow up post. I purchased one of the new 2022 models of the breakbeats. Overall the shells, hardware, fit and finish, etc are significantly improved over the old model.

However... Evans heads STILL do not fit the bass drum even with the new wood hoops! I first tried the 16" bass drum collar head then tried the 16" tom collar head, neither style of Evans 16" bass drum fits these hoops. The wood hoops are simply too small and won't even seat on the head itself, let alone tune properly. I contacted Ludwig and they provided zero support, they said "we have a longstanding partnership with Remo drum heads and our drums are admittedly undersized. Contact sweetwater for a return." So contact Sweetwater for a return I did!

I don't know what is going on but this is really starting to drive me crazy, Ludwig has big artists who play Evans heads (like our very own @bermuda) so why do they insist on making these bass drum hoops so undersized that you are forced to use Remo?

I don't want to sound like a snob but if I can't use Evans I'm not using those drums.
 
I'm not familiar with the Breakbeats or Ludwig's heads since Remo began OEM'g the bulk of them not long ago, but I know that Remo, Evans and Aquarian heads my have a slightly different fit on certain drums.

So far though, I haven't had any fit problems with Evans heads on any of Ludwig's US drums including Classic Maple, Keystone (Classic Oak), Legacy, Signet (!) or Neusonics. Breakbeats are made in China I believe, but they certainly should be made to Ludwig's specs with regard to replacing heads.
 
I'm not familiar with the Breakbeats or Ludwig's heads since Remo began OEM'g the bulk of them not long ago, but I know that Remo, Evans and Aquarian heads my have a slightly different fit on certain drums.

So far though, I haven't had any fit problems with Evans heads on any of Ludwig's US drums including Classic Maple, Keystone (Classic Oak), Legacy, Signet (!) or Neusonics. Breakbeats are made in China I believe, but they certainly should be made to Ludwig's specs with regard to replacing heads.
I appreciate the info and I would have thought the same. I'm working with Tim G from Ludwig and he too is surprised that the heads don't fit and cited you, Nate Smith, and Carter McLean all as big time artists using Evans heads with Ludwig drums. He mentioned the same thing that even though the breakbeats are made overseas that they are still given very specific specs that match the sizes/tolerances of their higher end USA gear. Sweetwater is taking the kit back and sending it to him so he can personally check it out, he said it's either 1. A dud and they will send me another or 2. The hoops infact do not fit Evans for which he said they will have a way bigger problem on their hands and will need to revisit the practices at the overseas plant. The Signet kit I've been using at the studio I practice at for the last six or so months has Evans hydraulics on the toms and Evans emad on the bass drum.

I've noticed all the kits that I've had trouble with Evans fitting have been all 16" or 18" bass drums and all lower end models made overseas, in each case the hoops (both metal and wood) being just ever so slightly too small. I wonder if this is a case of imperial measurement being converted to metric.
 
I wonder if this is a case of imperial measurement being converted to metric.
I haven't experienced any hoop issues with Ludwig, and their metal hoops are all made overseas. Same for every US company's hoops. Even with a metric conversion, a tight fit could certainly be adjusted in 1mm increments as needed.
 
I haven't experienced any hoop issues with Ludwig, and their metal hoops are all made overseas. Same for every US company's hoops. Even with a metric conversion, a tight fit could certainly be adjusted in 1mm increments as needed.
I appreciate your insight. Tim at Ludwig is working hard to help me out.
 
Just in case anyone is ever curious, the internal diameter of the new wood hoops on the 2022 model Ludwig Breakbeats is 16 3/32" (408.78mm according to google). I had to take the picture when I spoke to Ludwig so I figured I would share the info here. I measured the center line from edge to edge, I had to tilt my phone to take a picture without a shadow so that's why it looks off center slightly.

IMG_20230515_115046676.jpg
 
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