Ludwig Supraphonic Snare Drum - Ludwig Supra

This section was taken with written consent from vintagedrumguide.com

Ludwig Drum Serial Number Dating Guides - Information Below

Here are some references you can use to date by serial number. The web site link is available so feel free to visit their web sites and learn more. I only put them in one location to make it easier for people to get the information.

If you have this badge you can't use the serial number guides below. This is the Ludwig Standard badge and serial numbers do not work.

This guide is presented with consent from The Vintage Drum Center

Ludwig 1960's Serial Number Time Chart #1
DATE	SERIAL NUMBER
1960 to late 1963	no serial numbers used
February 24, 1964	12,219
April, 1964	31,505
April, 1965	142,581
July 6, 1965	171,268
October, 1965	233,838
March 19, 1966	308,863
August 30, 1966	361,292
November, 1966	390,690
March, 1967	427,211
June, 1967	493,426
November 15, 1967	519,728
February 6, 1968	578,990
June 21, 1968	604,865
November, 1968	650,521
January, 1969	673,078
February 26, 1969	689,430
September 4, 1969	743,080

Ludwig 1960's Serial Number Time Chart #2
DATE	SERIAL NUMBER
1960 to late 1963	no serial numbers used
1964	0 – 133,000
1965	133,000 – 266,000
1966	266,000 – 399,000
1967	399,000 – 532,000
1968	532,000 – 665,000
1969	665,000 – 798,000*
* Note: At approximately the 750,000 mark in the serial number sequence, Ludwig discontinued the brass Keystone badge and replaced it with the blue and olive parallelogram-shaped badge.

The Ludwig Drummer.com dating guide from their web site. Only presented because the web site has been going down so I wanted it documented here

Date Stamp by Year

1964

Serial Number

Date Stamp

11362

2/10/64

15429

1/1/64

16860

3/12/64

19878

3/27/64

24024

4/20/64

71265

1/1/64

71488

1/1/64

72614

1/1/64

169647

1/1/64

267000

1/1/64

Date Stamp by Year

1965

Serial Number

Date Stamp

108532

3/4/65

113969

3/1/65

114352

3/20/65

119267

1/1/65

122886

3/29/65

125635

1/1/65

155995

5/12/65

162700

6/8/65

184550

1/1/65

191777

6/8/65

195136

8/17/65

204494

9/13/65

226553

11/8/65

227491 10/1/65

228807 10/1/65

235091 9/23/65

252471 12/23/65

285700 1/1/65

291252 4/2/65

Date Stamp by Year 1966

Serial Number Date Stamp

268069 7/11/66

297582 2/10/66

311970 2/5/66

340798 1/1/66

351000 7/11/66

355000 8/2/66

389304 12/1/66

410265 9/1/66

419380 11/19/66

419900 11/14/66

449000 9/1/66

Date Stamp by Year 1967

Serial Number Date Stamp

397602 1/1/67

398288 1/1/67

436913 1/1/67

443000 1/30/67

466000 3/2/67

475412 2/28/67

493306 1/1/67

498000 1/30/67

517910 11/24/67

530903 8/16/67

552184 11/3/67

565135 12/29/67

Date Stamp by Year 1968

Serial Number Date Stamp

506371 11/2/68

562746 1/9/68

572335 2/6/68

588893 3/11/68

590071 3/14/68

590726 1/1/68

591310 1/1/68

607284 1/1/68

607288 1/1/68

607835 3/15/68

615915 5/20/68

656661 1/1/68

Date Stamp by Year 1969

Serial Number Date Stamp

673408 1/31/69

702661 1/1/69

709198 9/12/69

Date Stamp by Year 1970

Serial Number Date Stamp

802966 9/8/70

Date Stamp by Year 1971

Serial Number Date Stamp

816700 4/8/71

910000 1/1/71

Rebeats.com historian Rob Cook also a personal friend has an excellent book about ludwig drums you can find by visiting his web site.

Here is the dating guide for 60's and 70's Ludwig Drums. The Ludwig Book is invaluable to me as a collector and I strongly suggest you consider buying all of Rob's Books! His books are a complete guide and offers more insight then these tables.

Keystone Badges
1961-1962:	No Numbers
1963	No Numbers - 7900
1964	9xxx - 33449
1965	108532 - 259xxx
1966	260xxx - 449xxx
1967	450xxx - 548xxx
1968	549xxx - 665372
1969	670xxx - 741215
Blue & Olive Badges
1969	765xxx - 834xxx
1970	out of sequence,unnunmered
1971	835xxx - 895xxx
1972	896xxx - 916xxx
1976	917xxx - 1290xxx
1978	xxxxxxx
1979	xxxxxxx - 2013537

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