Ludwig Deluxe Club Date Drums 1963 - Blue Oyster Pearl

Rare 3 piece Ludwig Deluxe Club Date kit from the early 60’s. $925.00. This kit has the original Blue oyster Pearl finish. I do not have the matching floor tom, just the kick,tom and Supra snare. Kit includes the 22x14 bass drum, 13x9 mounted tom and 14x5.5 LM 400 Supraphonic snare drum. Has the original Ludwig tom mount and rare tom mount adjustment tool. Recently refurbished and cleaned with new Remo Ambassador coated batter heads. All original hardware. The early DeLuxe Club Date sets had a 14x24,9x13, and a 5.5x14 snare drum. By the mid 1950’s, the bass drum was now a 14x22 with 13” tom and the 14” snare The snare drum was also changed from the 6.5x14 to a 5.5x14 at this time. By 1960, the now badged Ludwig drums dropped the DeLuxe part of the name in the catalog in favor of just calling the sets “Club Date”. The sizes were still the same and the sets were offered with a hoop mounted clamp to hold the tom and a straight mount for the cymbal mounted directly on top of the bass drum. Floor toms used the spring-loaded style legs created in the late 40’s on all WFL floor toms. The big change for the Club Date came around the 1964 catalog when Ludwig changed the sizes of the set to be 14x20,8x12,14x14 and six lug Pioneer snare drum. It’s hard to know if this was coincidence or just perfect planning, but the smaller sized Club Date sets were perfectly timed with the big Beatle craze that happened after the Beatles played Ed Sullivan in Feb 1964. After that famous performance, Ludwig found themselves with big backlogs of orders and ramped up production to run three shifts, 7 days a week to keep up with the demands. The Club Date was the perfect set for a young budding drummer and the sets looked cool as they could be had in any of the popular finishes, including Ringo’s famous Oyster Black finish.

The Club Date has really become popular in recent years as many have discovered that the sets are all made with Ludwig’s top of the line shell and could be found in any of the finishes Ludwig offered at various times. There are many that also say that the center mounted lug allows the shell to ring more as there is less contact to the shell. The small sizes also make them great for a lot of the gigs these days as many places have scaled back music or hired bands to play at lower volumes. Club Date sets can also be tuned up high or down low and sound great in a variety of tunings. The bass drums can also sound big and full yet can also be cranked up to more of a bop setting. Ludwig has actually released a few different versions of the famous Club date sets in recent years and from my understanding, one can custom order a new set to be configured like a Club Date. A great way to hear some examples is from videos posted by Carter McLean. Carter is a Ludwig endorser that plays a wide variety of styles and has many videos posted to youTube and Instagram. He has made some great videos using vintage 60’s Club date drums and they sound fantastic. He even uses the six lug Pioneer in a few of his videos they also sound great tuned high and low. its A great look kit for Only $925.00 Shipping in lower 48 available at the buyers expense. I prefer local meetup or pickup in Greenville SC area.