I am always on the hunt for a nice vintage drum set for sale. My friends and family are always on the search also. I truly appreciate a call from someone telling me about a drum set that they saw somewhere. I want them to tell me about anything they find, and even if it turns out to be something I'm not interested in, I still want to be told about any drums they might come across. This beautiful set of Ludwig Bronze Strata Standards was seen by one of my friends on one of those equipment sale pages on Facebook. I'm glad he took the time to contact me about them. They are in excellent shape, and the Bronze Strata finish is very rare.
The Standard line was Ludwig's attempt to introduce a more affordable drum set to the public when the foreign made drums flooded the market. In the 1960s rock music took off in America as the British invasion, and the Beatles in particular came on the scene. Overnight every young person wanted to be a drummer or play guitar. As a result, drum set sales began to soar. Ludwig was very fortunate to get a lion's share of these new younger customers desiring to play the name brand drums that Ringo Starr played with the Beatles. The importers of foreign drums certainly took advantage of this lucrative situation, and so the American market was flooded with foreign made drum sets. These foreign sets were cheaper, so that appealed to a lot of parents buying that drum set for their aspiring rock stars. The much better made American drums were expensive, so Ludwig and also the other big American brands introduced their own less expensive lines in order to compete.
The Standards were high quality and utilized the same three ply shells Ludwig used on their premium drums. The hardware was lighter, and I suppose cut the cost somewhat. The great thing about the Standards is the finishes used on these drums were exclusive to these sets. Six Strata (swirl) finishes were offered as well as Five Astro (satin) finishes and four Mist (Sparkle) finishes. It is pretty common to see a red and blue in all three types of finishes. The other colors are more rare. I'm not sure which would be the most rare, but it could be the bronze. Someone reading this may know how many of each finish was sold. Remember, rare now means the finish didn't sell as well as the others. Even though now we say, "wow, that finish is really cool." The problem was, did the kids who were buying the drum sets think it was cool, and did the music store owner take a chance placing the finish in his store when he knew a blue or red set would sell.
This set is the most common Standard configuration, the S-330 twin tom five piece set. The bass drum is 22X14, floor tom is 16X16, the mounted toms are 13X9 and 12X8. The snare drum is a bit different in that it is a 14X5 non chromed aluminum shell with eight classic bowtie lugs. It is much like the Acrolite series. Standards have their own unique triangular shaped badge. The interiors of the bass and toms are coated with grey speckled paint, but some Standards have white painted interiors. Standards usually have smooth low mass lugs. If your Standard kit has Classic lugs that might also be correct. Ludwig would use the Classic lugs if they were low on Standard lugs.
Have a great Fall and keep collecting and playing those great vintage drums.
1970s Ludwig Standard S-330 drum set finished in bronze strata
