Afraid so. They did. The Healthy Planet Police made waves in the city limits and they were in a pickle. They slapped those icky things on there to keep from having to meet the regs. Nasty stuff.

Here is a history lesson poppy the era you see before you is literally what ended the real ludwig drum company, this fiasco was though up by the accounting department and some bone head engineer, they could save money by riveting the wrap and shell together all at once, only problem with that, the original owners have lifetime warranty remember??? and wood shells vibrate and rivets don't, the wood would hollow out around the rivets, and the wrap would be the first to go but by then the shells sounded like a tambourine from the rattling of the metal rivets, No joking, the ludwig factory is not far from my house, I know the plant manager personally and it to this day is not a funny subject with him!!!Mind Blowi

I remember seeing a brand new WMP Ludwig set when I was in HS-say 75'/76'and saying-what is this crap?Did the factory do that?The owner said it came that way-Terrible idea,like pressboard drums,or the insta-break Gretsch "Monster"bass drum pedal.Completely made of white metal.Lasted me 1 set on the road-

There was a "Producer" on this area who came to check a set of those drums I had for sale like 2 months ago. He claimed that I instaled those "wrong" rivets in to the seam after rewrapping the shells...he told me that he was a Ludwig "expert"...

I don't remember them putting on anchor locks prior to 1980. I thought it was after the Selmer sale. That took place in 81. Am I mistaken?

You are correct.

Yes they did do it, and the real reason it was done was because certain wraps, in particular white marine pearl, would shrink at the seam and lift. They changed the way the wrap was attached to the shell when they went to the 6-ply shells vs the 3-ply shells. Three ply shells had the wrap bonded to the outer ply BEFORE the shell was formed into shape using some now defunct super strong, probably extremely toxic, adhesive glue. This is why the 3-ply shells have the wrap UNDER the seam of the shell.......you'll find this out if you ever attempt to re-wrap an old 3-ply shell. Well.....the 6-ply shells were die-formed as opposed to steam bent into shape....the old method of attaching the wrap wouldn't work any more. Also, the type of adhesive changed at the time due to the EPA and such. The new glue was not as strong, and they were still using the old cellulose based wraps....so weaker glue and wraps that shrink over time would cause lifting seams. Ludwig's solution? Pop rivet the seam! Well guess what? That didn't work out too well either....the wrap would still shrink over time (WMP being the worst offender) only this time instead of just lifting at the seam, the wrap would split and crack at and around the rivets!

After that disasterous adventure, Ludwig went to the double sided tape method.......that worked out about as well as the rivets.....the wrap would still shrink, and it would crack, split, grow flaps and "wings"....it happened to me so I know from experience....the final fix to the issue is when 99% of the wraps became available in PVC plastic instead of the old cellulose based plastic.....a lot less shrinkage ("I WAS IN THE POOL!".........take that all you Seinfeld/George Costanza fans!) and no more lifting problems........Ludwig uses the PVC based wraps now and they also have gone to the same 3M water based adhesive that Precision Drum recommends for all of their wraps they sell. Gretsch has too btw....

Dam! When I saw that, I was as confused as a goat on Astro Turf!

I cant believe they did that. That's about as ugly as my toenails!

Wow!

I have seen a couple of those pop-riveted wraps and they are butt ugly! Can't believe the esteemed Ludwig co. would do such a thing?

I thought some unskilled do-it-your-selfer had done the riveting after seeing a lift in the wrap.

UGLY!!! Toilet

-kellyj