Ludwig Classic Birch or Maple 3-piece Drum Set, 22-10-14, Natural, '97

Description

Ludwig Classic Birch Maple
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3-Piece drum set in a Natural finish. Classic Birch or Classic Maple (please read below) Good condition overall. Some cosmetic wear. The toms are slightly lighter in hue than the bass, but it isn't very noticeable when set up in my opinion. The Double tom mount is stripped on one side that would hold the second rack tom. I will include the mount parts that I removed but without thread work it will not be able to accommodate a second tom as-is. The side that holds up the 10" for this kit works fine. There is noticeable fading behind all of the hardware- such as if you remove a lug or the bass drum hoop claws, underneath them it is lighter than the finish of the rest of the drum. The bass drum is stamped "12 97-". The 2 toms here are not stamped.
22x16 bass
10x8 rack tom
14x14 floor tom
Generally, the rule for Classic Maple vs Classic Birch is “Gold Badge = Maple” and “Silver Badge = Birch”. However, I am suspicious that this kit may be birch instead of maple, despite the gold badges.
The Elite-style hardware, including the Elite micro-lugs line up with the Classic Birch line (this goes for the bass drum and toms). Also, there is an 8” birch tom (silver-badge) that came with this set that looks identical to my eyes in construction to the other gold-badged drums.
The snare and bass drum both have 8-lugs, and the snare does not have a tone control, or holes drilled for a tone control at all.
I couldn’t find another example of a set of drums exactly like this one. The 12” tom (not included with this 3-piece) and the bass drum both date Dec/1997 (no other drums are dated). I believe this was just a period where Ludwig was figuring things out and it’s possible this kit was thrown together with gold badges, even though it was a birch kit. Or perhaps, they just assembled a maple kit with their Classic Birch hardware. However, in that case it’s odd to me how similar the 8” is (which is birch by all accounts) to the rest of the “maple” drums. It is also odd that the 8” was added to the set as a birch drum if the rest of the kit was maple, since it wouldn’t match.
I can not say for certain one way or another, but my guess is that this is a Classic Birch set. Please understand this set is sold as-is, regardless of actual wood construction. Please do your own research and make your own assessment!