I picked up this vintage Ludwig pad in a bundle that also included some cool, old Rudimental instruction sheets. It’s one of the older pads with a plywood baseplate. It uses an insert inside, a smaller plywood disc cut to the size of the head and rim (8”). On top of the smaller disc is a layer of dense rubber foam that allows for a nice rebound when the head is tightened over the top of it.
The wooden disc does not attach to the baseplate. It simply rests on top of it, with the pressure of head, rim and tuning rods holding the pad together.
Older models of this pad used a thicker insert of foam rubber, set inside a circular metal band that was sized to serve as a bearing edge for the head to lay on, under the outer rim. This pad lacks the circular band and uses a plywood disc instead. I don't know which came first, but I suspect this version may be either a newer version without the metal band, or possibly someone's homemade revision because the metal band was broken or lost. I don't know.
I took the pad apart so I could clean the components and figure out how improve assembly.
The challenge with this make and model of pad is that Ludwig stopped making it over forty years ago, and stopped making replacement parts at least twenty years ago. So any fixes I chose to make to this pad today would have to be with an eye towards semi-permanence.
I took the pad apart, cleaned the head as best I could with warm soapy water and set it aside to dry.
Then I looked at the baseplate. The threaded posts were easily removable by gentle tapping out with a small hammer. The center threaded post hole, allowing the pad to be mounted onto a stand, took some more forceful tapping with a small punch. The plywood is soft and easy to damage, so I took my time. The three small “feet” also came off pretty easily with gentle prying of a tiny flat blade screwdriver.
Then, I flipped the baseplate over. The side hidden by the disc and rim was black and clean. I decided that reversing the baseplate might help mitigate some of the warping brought about by sixty years of one-way tension.
(My camera went on the fritz while I was doing all this disassembly and reassembly. Once I got it to work again, I didn’t really feel like doing the whole process over again. If you want to see one of these pads unpacked, check out Rick Dior’s awesome YouTube videos, and get thoroughly schooled on how and why these old Ludwig pads are so cool.)
After I cleaned as much gunk off the head as I could, I put it back on. Replacement heads are very hard to come by for these old pads, and since this head had no holes and only a few small dents, I felt it still had some life left. But to make sure I could get more mileage, After I tuned it up, I applied a black dot from Cardinal Percussion. It basically turns the head into an affordable mock-up of Remo’s CS Black Dot head, and offers some additional protection and durability for the center of the head.
I also added a second set of washers to take up some of the stack height on the threaded posts. Simple 5mm washers, available at any bike shop or hardware store, do the trick here.
I decided against reinstalling the original feet. They’re tiny and warn down, and offer almost no traction on a tabletop. I spot-glued four squares of thick mousepad material and will eventually replace those with the big white rubber feet I’ve used on other similar pads.
Once this is all done, it will make a nice portable pad I can use and enjoy anywhere.
You can find the 8” size now and then on Reverb, eBay and elsewhere. The 10” size is much harder to find, and when you do you’ll have to pay a lot for it.
Video, after I took everything apart, reversed the baseplate and reinstalled the metal parts on the new bottom.
A couple days later, I obtained the rubber feet I needed to finish restoring this Ludwig pad.
They're 7/8", come with screws and can be found at most hardware stores.
Hint: Even in softer wood like what this pad is made with, it's a good
idea to gently tap some thin nails into the wood first, then pull them
out and use the holes as guides for the screws. They'll do less damage
to the wood this way, and are less likely to go crooked while you screw
them in.
Another hint: Like many of these old Ludwig pads, the wood
baseplate was slightly warped, even after inverting it and reinstalling
all the hardware. Selecting which "corners" to install the rubber feet
in may help reduce some of the wobble from the baseplate not being
level.
If that doesn't work entirely, you can help things along by
placing very thin metal washers under the two opposing feet where the
wobble is most pronounced.
Some folks prefer to have three feet on bottom, and in many cases that's more stable than using four. But on a pad this size I think four works fine.
After I got that issue solved, I had another go at the black ink on the
head. This time, I gently buffed it with a fine emory board, one of the
cheap freebies you get at nail salons. Then, I soaked a cotton ball in
nail polish remover (acetone) and very carefully rubbed off what was
left of the paint and the other stains on the head. When I finished, I
wiped the head down with a damp rag to remove the excess acetone.
The results were excellent.
This should do it for this pad. I have another Ludwig DB-750 pad in the same size, with a nearly pristine Ludwig Ensemble head on it. That pad is really clean and has a higher tension than this one, and I think I'll just let it be. This pad, though, isn't so pristine that I have to baby it, and it's now part of my regular rotation of usable practice pads. I'm pleased with how it turned out.