I was rearranging my drum room a few days ago in order to get a particular set out when I came across this Ludwig Citrus Mod Hollywood kit. A good friend had called and asked about borrowing a set for a show he was playing for. I was glad to do it for him. Some of my sets have been played on recording projects and even in movies. As I was moving this Citrus Mod kit I noticed it was date stamped October 1968. I started thinking about what the world was like in '68. I know many of you were not born yet. I often forget that when I am talking to younger people. I will say something like," Do you remember when Hendrix played at the Atlanta Pop Festival?" They will look at me with a weird expression and say, "No, I wasn't born yet." I just forget sometimes I'm the old folks now. There was some great music coming out in the late 1960s. We were digging Cream, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and a host of great bands with drummers that became legendary.
The late 1960s was the psychedelic era. Without trying to explain what psychedelic means I will just present the finish on this drum set to illustrate it. Wild and weird colors became part of what it was all about. Ludwig Drum Company produced three drum finishes that were truly wild and weird looking. The three were Psychedelic Red, Mod Orange, and Citrus Mod. This kit is a good example of Citrus Mod, the rarest of the three finishes. The sales were not as good with this finish as with the other two, so it became a rare finish highly sought after by vintage drum collectors and primarily Ludwig drum collectors. This set is the Hollywood configuration with a 12X8 and a 13X9 mounted tom. The bass drum is 22X14 and the floor tom is 16X16. Keystone badges and clear interiors are featured on this set. There are not many matching snares out there in this finish, and the ones that exist are, consequently, highly prized.