Welcome to the Ludwig Black Beauty Snare Drum history web site! We get a lot of questions about the Ludwig Black Beauty and decided to create a web site with all of the history we have gathered over the years of research.

We are a network of over 25 web sites with our flagship web site the Vintage Drum Forum with over 20K members world wide! There are plenty of members to help ID or point you in the right direction for your drums. If you like to look through research, photos and articles, then check out our historical web site the Vintage Drum Guide.

The De Luxe Drum was originally introduced in the 1920's as a special snare drum with options to have simulated gold finish and special shell engraving. In the 1930's it was called the Black Beauty snare drum.

Then in the mid-late 30's the drum was dropped from the catalogs and did not re-appear until 1977 when it was re-introduced. This is where we will focus with the web site, since more people own the newer Black Beauty snare drums.

We have a catalog and flyer time line for the Black Beauty which shows you the drums and shells and how they went from brass to bronze and back to brass.

The earliest black beautires from the 1920's are the hardest to find. Many are in collections and on display in drummingh rooms! You can still find them and if you're lucky enough to find one, check back here to ID it and learn more about it. Remember do not do any polishing or restoration until you do the research. Also you can search the Vintage Drum Forum for tips and techniques. You can take off the finish if you are not careful

Please ask us any questions about your Ludwig Black Beauty Snare Drum and if you can spare a few dollars to help us keep the history going, click the Ko-fi link to buy usa cup of coffee. It is that simple!

The Drum Experts