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The Return of Ludwig-Musser


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We sure that's not a photoshop?

I did a little checking around and it's not a photoshop. Tom Float's Ayala High School drumline is testing them as well as Jame Logan High I believe. There is video of Ayala's line on the site that may not be mentioned. They sound great - on video anyway.

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I did a little checking around and it's not a photoshop. Tom Float's Ayala High School drumline is testing them as well as Jame Logan High I believe. There is video of Ayala's line on the site that may not be mentioned. They sound great - on video anyway.

Yeah, Float's been working w/Tama for quite awhile to get a marching line up and running

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You're correct. Yamaha, Pearl, Dynasty and Mapex are the Big Four. Ludwig is stuck as a niche line right now, Slingerland is long gone, and Premier is mostly gone. (Though in the UK, they have... er, had... a dominant share due to pipe band sales.) And Mapex is kind of a distant fourth as far as numbers go, mainly because the others have been selling for many more years.

Mike

I remember when Regiment was on Premier in the mid-90s and how long it took for parts to arrive from the UK. You almost needed to keep a whole separate battery to rob parts from.

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When we had Ludwigs in Spirit 95 - 97 there were so many problems, we voiced them to reps when we saw them even pleaded for more bass lugs because they were popping off ( never got any had to fit pearl lugs ). The usa drums bottom " free floating " rings were not flat from the factory. They fit heads fine but after a few days of tuning one side was already head ring to the hoop while the other side was not. We always double hooped them. We had tenor shells come apart.

As we all know those are the heaviest tenors in the business still... I loved hearing stories from Mr. Ludwig on the invention of the mylar head and etc. but who ever the reps are and R & D people... They need to listen to members and staff people about ALL problems.

The best usa snares I ever heard were at Crown in 1996 and 97. They were having problems with lug inserts popping out ( like all of us ) and Ludwig would not supply them with enough so they got pearl lug inserts.

In 97 they had the test black maxes ( those sound and feel better than what has been sold to the public ) and 3 tennis racket guts under the top head. Those were sweet!!!

Musser.... If you have ever spent a summer playing their non wood bars.... You know all about having fiberglass in your fingers all summer... OUCH!!! That and they always broke or cracked under heat and being played on and man did they go flat in high humidity and heat..

I will say it again since it has been said for years but they still do not listen.

Ludwig... Go checkout the competition. Upgrade your stuff, do comparison tests then make the test drums for corps and listen to what techs and members say about the equipment.

You guys were at the top and your factory is still based in the U.S. This is a great opportunity to re instill faith in American made products and reclaim your name.

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Allan Murray, performer, instructor, designer and entrepreneur, has accepted a position with Ludwig-Musser to bring the label back to prominence as the new Director of Sales and Marketing.

Expect new designs to bring Ludwig-Musser into the 21st Century, and a new dedication to the marching percussion community.

I am confident that Allan will be successful in this challenge, as he has been in similar situations before. I'm looking forward to Ludwig-Musser taking a leadership role in drum corps and marching band once again.

Garry in Vegas

PS Whew! I've been sitting on this information for two weeks!

CT,

Long time. I visited Ludwig in Indiana about two years ago with a new marching drum design for snares and bass drums--I wonder if they ripped it off and call it theirs now. Hope not. It was a well engineered drum designed by a drummer and a couple of structural engineers from Chicago that incorporated the shell with the rim--no more floating rim, no more 14 lb drums, no more formica sound and no ringing. Amazing. I will be interested to see what they come up with.......

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CT,

Long time. I visited Ludwig in Indiana about two years ago with a new marching drum design for snares and bass drums--I wonder if they ripped it off and call it theirs now. Hope not. It was a well engineered drum designed by a drummer and a couple of structural engineers from Chicago that incorporated the shell with the rim--no more floating rim, no more 14 lb drums, no more formica sound and no ringing. Amazing. I will be interested to see what they come up with.......

Yea head to shell connection and sound will be great to have again. I know the guy that helped out Mapex with their stuff wanted to make that happen too but the company was not so concerned with making that the priority snare drum to push.

A little off topic but those Yamaha Corps Customs whoo!! That is a sound I miss.

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Yeah, Dynasty's choked-off, deadened sound lends itself well to WGI/drums-in-a-gym. :ph34r:

Actually, yes it does. :) You can have a full battery drumming at fortissimo and not be too loud for the audience. But more importantly, Dynasty gives awesome deals to start-up groups that other companies just choose not to offer. The quality of the product may be questionable to some, but the customer service and price without question the best on the market. If Ludwig wants to break into the market again, they'll have to either use a similar strategy OR get a bunch of big names to switch over to their product right out of the gate.

Either way, nobody is going to use their products if they keep their awful field marimba design.

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It's funny to me when people talk about the price of Dynasty's being so cheap. When I was purchasing a new battery for my high school band last year, they were the most expensive of the big three. I ended up going with Pearls because of the sound AND price (they were the cheapest).

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