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Norwood Park Imperials Alumni Forum

Alumni are welcome to post messages to each other, comment on experiences, or just tell everyone what you've been doing. The Topics with most the recent comments will always be at the top of the list.

If you click on the Message Topic (first column in the table below) then you will see all of the messages for that Topic. You can then add your own comment by clicking the REPLY button for any message.  If you click the QUOTE button on a message, that message will be copied into your reply so that it's clear what your reply is about.

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Bob Shreffler
Apr 2, 2008 - 12:50PM
Bill Ludwig Jr. Passes On

http://www.notsomoderndrummer.com/

Those of you who knew anything about the Ludwigs or their drums will find this article interesting. Bill Jr. died this past week.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare, Drum Major, Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

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Apr 2nd, 2008 - 12:50 PM
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David Borck
Apr 2, 2008 - 4:21PM
Re: Bill Ludwig Jr. Passes On

Bob, I heard of this via an e-mail from Mitch Markovitch.

Bill Ludwig was a good friend of drum corps and also had assisted the Imperials on many occasions.

He was also a very good rudimental drummer!!

What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

j
John Anderson
Apr 2, 2008 - 11:27PM
Re: Bill Ludwig Jr. Passes On

Ludwig had a line of bugles too.

What did you do in the Corps? Baritone--Cadets 1959 through 1961 Imperials 1962 through 1966

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David Borck
Apr 5, 2008 - 5:02PM
Re: Bill Ludwig Jr. Passes On

Actually, Ludwig drums were of very high quality and were used by a lot of corps.

There was a firm called LEEDY which also produced good drums, but they were bought out by Ludwig later.

Slingerland Drum Company (another Chicago area firm) did well for many years.

Finally, the Japanese low cost drums took over ... Yamaha! More offshore outsourcing!

What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

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Bob Shreffler
Apr 6, 2008 - 5:54PM
Re: Bill Ludwig Jr. Passes On

Ludwig's last hurrah in the marching world was the Challenger, which came out in 1975-76. We bought a set in the Cavaliers, and they were good drums. They were designed to compete with the Slingerland TDRs, which were the top drum at the time. Although Ludwig did bring out a floating shell drum in the 90s, it was too late to compete with Yamaha, Pearl, and Premier.

Leedys were good drums - I remember an ad in the old drum corps magazines featuring Blessed Sac using them. The other major brand of the day was Rogers, which was used by the Cavaliers, Santa Clara, and others. Ther were much heavier than the Ludwig or Slingerlands. And Slingerlands were kind of a joke until they came out with the TDRs in 1971. Most of the people using them simply couldn't afford Ludwigs.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare, Drum Major, Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

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Apr 6th, 2008 - 5:54 PM
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