Ludwig mainly promoted the fact that the company is celebrating the return of the Mod Orange finish. Mod Orange was one of the three psychedelics finishes (Psychedelic Red, Mod Orange, Citrus Mod) that were sold by the Ludwig Drum company in the end 1960's and 70's. It became famous by The Doors-drummer John Densmore, who has been playing it for decades. The reissue is Ludwig's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Mod Orange finish. As of now Ludwig offers this vintage oyster finish for these existing Ludwig drum series: Club Date, Keystone X, Classic Maple and Legacy Series Drums.
But there are more new finishes from Ludwig for 2018, and there is more to tell about the Mod Orange. Below you find Mike Nieland, Key account manager at Ludwig Drums, showing you the newly created Mod Orange wrap at the NAMM Show. We also added the official Ludwig video with John Densmore talking about the legendary finish.
One of the problems with the old finishes was that these wraps were filled with color, which would fade when exposed to sunlight. There are stories from drummers that keep them in the dark, hoping the colors won't fade. We hope Ludwig fixed that issue with the new wraps.
Ludwig's 2018 Mod Orange finish
John Densmore's Mod Orange John Densmore his kit is known to have smaller sizes drums. His background was jazz and one of his early idols was Elvin Jones. While many drummers want and use larger sized drums, like the 24" and 26" bass drums that are so popular nowadays, John still sticks to his prefered sizes: a 14x20 bass drum, 14x14 floor tom, a 8x12 tom and a 5x14 snare drum.
Ludwig Mod Orange with John Densmore of The Doors John Densmore of The Doors talks about the early days of The Doors and his Ludwig sound.
More new Ludwig Finishes for 2018
Wrap finishes
Olive Pearl
Mod Orange
Pink Glitter
Solid Painted finishes Only available for Classic Maple and Legacy Maple
Heritage Blue
Heritage Green
If you want to know more about John Densmore's Mod Orange kit, Kurt Ekstrom from notsomoderndrummer.com wrote a great article on the history of the drumset.
