Catalog Corner - 1951 Leedy & Ludwig Catalog No. 51

Hello to all the Not So Modern Drummer readers, I’ve been asked to take over the “Catalog Corner” column, and so it begins again here.

 Commonly referred to as the “blue one”, this is the first catalog produced by Leedy & Ludwig in 1950–51 when the two companies merged. It is also the rarest and most difficult to obtain if you can at all. It took me many years to acquire this extremely fine example.

After the short lived merger of Ludwig drums and Leedy drums which only lasted 4-5 years they produced the first combined offer of their wares in these pages.

Touting the “Knob Tension” drums, which in theory seemed good but were an abysmal failure almost to the point of both drum companies’ demise, the catalog itself is very beautiful and well done.

As a big Leedy & Ludwig player and collector myself this catalog and the other three, 52, 53 & 53A are some of my favorites from my vast collection.

My catalog collection is one of the reasons George asked me to take over these duties after seeing a small part of it posted on a few of my Facebook drum groups, including Vintage Drum Collectors & Players. Stop by to join the group, we would love to have you!

 Thank you for checking this out, if you have any requests of particular catalogs you would like to see in the future please let me know. And as always, thank you for reading.

Edward Tucker
Studio 3T
email:
studio3t@icloud.com