BADGES?! WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' BADGES!!

Well, yes, actually we do.  Vintage drums aren't worth Jacquelyn Crappolin if they don't have good, clean, undamaged badges.  That's why even if the shell of a drum is completely destroyed and unrestorable, some smart entrepreneurs will carefully pry the badge off and sell that on Ebay.  Twenty-five dollars for a little aluminum Ludwig logo?!  You bet, buster.  There's money in those badges and restoration junkies like myself will pay whatever it takes to get one if we need it.

But there are many conditions that matter very much.  For instance, this "Blue/Olive" Ludwig badge to the upper right is in excellent condition and will sell for around twenty to forty dollars - or even more depending on the intensity of the bidding process.  In this case the seller is also including a mounting grommet with the item.  He's a clever, conscientious, successful seller.  He will do well.

And here on the left we also have a Ludwig badge.  It should be worth about the same, should it not?  No, it should not.  Not at all.  First of all, it's in crap condition: rusty and scratched.  And no grommet.  But most of all, it's black and white, not blue and olive.  This indicates the badge came off of a lower-priced, lesser-quality line (most likely the budget "Rocker" series), which makes it much less valuable than the above badge.  This black-and-white badge is currently up for bid on Ebay for $6.95 and has ZERO bids.  Why?  Because $6.95 is too much for this badge and nobody wants it anyway!  Who restores Rockers?  This seller is a dreamer who envisions himself a purveyor of valuable vintage percussion parts, but I am afraid he will not fare as well.

Now let us carefully examine two of my recent purchases: ten and twelve-inch Ludwig Black Vistalite Concert Toms.  Here I appear to have a perfectly-matched pair of drums.  After all, they are both Vistalites, both black, and both sporting decent "blue/olive" badges, which indicate they were made in the 1970s, right?.

Well, there is one definitive difference that you with the untrained eye may not have noticed right away.  The 12" tom, which I bought from a seller in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has what is commonly referred to as a "pointy badge," whereas the 10" that came from the same seller has a badge with "rounded corners."  Look closely at the upper right and lower left corners of the badges to see what I mean.  This was a slight change that Ludwig made in 1979 after whiny liberal pansies complained about the "pointy badges" getting snagged on things and becoming bent.  And they could put your eye out.  And after all, it is rude to point.

So now it seems obvious that the smaller drum here is actually a later 1979 model, made right at the point when Ludwig rounded the "points" on the badges and, if I may make the point, ceased production of Vistalite kits all together. At the time it seemed pointless to continue.  Kinda like this blog post.

Just to sum up, Ludwig began making the transparent acrylic Vistalites (red, yellow, blue, green, amber and "clear") in 1972 (though they were not officially featured in the catalog until 1974).  Solid white and solid black were not available until 1975, and production ended in 1979.  So these two toms, as we can now determine from their dissimilar badges, are both from the same '75-'79 era, only the 10" is from the '79 end of that era and the 12" was made sometime earlier.  Aren't you thrilled we sorted all that out?!

So know your stinkin' badges.  They can tell you a lot about the vintage drums to which they are affixed.  And now I think I'll go a-fix myself a sandwich.