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Registered: 12-2006
Location: Boulder, CO
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Ludwig


William F Ludwig II
Apr 23 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

WHAT luck to have your drum kit used on the US TV nationwide debut of what was about to be the world’s greatest pop group.

William F Ludwig II, who has died, aged 91, ran the eponymous Ludwig Drum Company which made the drums used by the Beatles on their Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1964.

Ringo Starr was so taken with the Ludwig drum kit, provided for him on the live broadcast, that he asked Bill Ludwig to custom-make a set for him.

Ludwig happily obliged. The result was phenomenal: Ludwig benefited from the ultimate product placement on the bass drumhead in full view of every Beatles’ audience.

Sales of Ludwig drum kits went through the roof – literally, as the firm had to build a 100,000sq ft extension to its Chicago factory and recruit a night shift to meet demand.

Ludwig Drum Company was originally founded in 1909, by the drumming brothers William Snr and Theobold.

They invented a drum pedal which could cope with the demands of the sophisticated, syncopated and rigorous rhythms of the up-coming ragtime and jazz music.

The former clumsy wooden pedals suitable for circus marching bands could not cope with the new music.

Theirs is now the modern bass drum pedal universally used, and by the 1920s ran the world’s biggest drum company.

Born in Illinois, William Jnr started playing drums aged eight on a practice pad his father brought home for him. He supplemented his student income playing drums at weekends for $4 a night.

But the good times stopped rolling for the family firm when talking pictures decimated cinema orchestras.

The 1929 stock market crash forced a sale to CG Conn, but father and son launched the WFL Drum Co in 1937.

However, GC Conn left the drum industry in 1955 and sold the family back the Ludwig name just in time for the rock and roll craze and the British pop invasion.

In 1966, Ludwig’s bought Musser Marimba Co, so it made every orchestral percussion instrument type. Ludwig succeeded his father as chief in 1973, but sold out to Selmer in 1981.

William F Ludwig II, drum maker; born, September 13, 1916, died, March 22, 2008



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Roccabella
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mr twister Profile
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Re: Ludwig


 emoticonringos rockin on!!! :mmt:

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mellowed out and whatever...
7/1/2009, 5:52 pm Link to this post Send Email to mr twister   Send PM to mr twister
 
Steve A Profile
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Re: Ludwig


mary, you doing allright?
9/23/2009, 1:29 pm Link to this post Send Email to Steve A   Send PM to Steve A
 


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