Tucked away past the chicken plant near the railroad tracks sits an
unassuming cluster of buildings with beige aluminum siding. Step inside
and you’ll find the one place in the world that makes drums for Ringo Starr.
Welcome to the home of Ludwig.
The century-old company has made Ringo’s drums since the dawn of Beatlemania.
Ludwig also provides drums for the likes of Alex Van Halen, Questlove and even Paul McCartney, to name just a few. And when Taylor Swift rocked Time Warner Cable Arena in June, her drummer was wailing on his Ludwig kit.
Ludwig’s clients are well-known, but their presence in Union County
is not. Yet for just over 30 years, this iconic company’s custom-made
drums only come from Monroe.
“People are definitely surprised we are here,” plant manager Ernie Benton said.
Ludwig employs about 50 people, including a core who have worked their craft there for a quarter century or longer.
They produce drum shells using the same type of formulas from the
Beatles’ heyday. Their drums sport names such as Vistalite, Black Beauty
and Classic Maple, titles that fans and stars recognize as easily as
“the Ludwig sound.”
It’s a crisp, full-bodied, snappy tone, drum experts say, providing the backbeat for bands from Led Zeppelin to Concord’s Avett Brothers. On Ludwig’s YouTube channel, Avett Brothers drummer Mike Marsh called the sound
of his Copper-Phonic snare drum “really controlled, really dry and it’s
really, really phat. And I can hear every nuance of my playing.”
Ludwig’s warm, classic sound fits every style, said Michael Dawson, managing editor of Modern Drummer Publications. It’s a sound, he said, that “defined rock and roll.”
A couple years ago, Dawson visited the plant where the self-proclaimed “most famous name on drums” are made.
“If I lived across the street from Ludwig, I’d be there as often as
they’d let me in,” he said. “For me, it’d be like living next to a piece
of American history.”
‘A real artist’
In the early 1980s, Chicago-based Ludwig was
sold to an Indiana firm that made instrument cases in Monroe and band
instruments in Albemarle.
Battling Japanese imports, the company shifted drum manufacturing to
Monroe to save money, streamline production and tap into North
Carolina’s skilled workforce in the furniture and woodworking industry.
Monroe, a city of 34,000 with a thriving aerospace industry, sits about 25 miles southeast of Charlotte.
Just inside the Ludwig building is a lobby awash in vibrant green,
silver, white, brown and black striped drums, gold cymbals, autographed
drum heads and even a drum covered with “Weird Al” Yankovic’s face.
Drums typically take about four weeks to build.
Its drums all start as flat boards stored in a
climate-controlled area. Next they get sliced into three panels that
will be molded into a cylinder to form the body of the drum.
Those drums are hand-sanded and sealed by the time they reach wrap
specialist Ann Ross, 61. The Marshville resident has spent nearly half
her life cutting and applying the PVC, acrylic or acetate wraps for the
outer shell of the drums.
Often when she’s done wrapping, she’ll walk upstairs, gaze out at the
production floor and admire the finished drums waiting to be packed up.
By then, they have been lacquered, buffed, inspected and drilled for
hardware assembly. “That’s what really makes me happy,” Ross said, “how
good it looks.”
She beams while noting she wrapped every Ringo drum since the mid-’80s. He always wants some new color. The latest was a silver glass sparkle look.
“I want him to see the shells and the drums, and I want him to say, ‘Wow, isn’t this beautiful.’”
In April, shortly before Ringo’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction for individual excellence, he retold the story of the day that changed Ludwig forever.
It was right before the Beatles first came to the states in 1964. Ringo and Beatles manager Brian Epstein
were walking down a London street when a Ludwig kit in a shop window
caught Ringo’s eye. “I loved anything American,” he explained in a video
for the hall. “It was that black pearl (wrap). I just loved that.”
So Ringo tried out the drums. They sounded great. As he’s about to
buy them, the guy in the shop goes to rip off the Ludwig sign.
“I said, ‘No, no, no. You gotta leave that on. It’s American,’” Ringo recalled with a laugh. “And the rest is history.”
On Feb. 9, 1964, in the Beatles’ first of three appearances that month on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” more than 73 million people tuned in to watch – a record 60 percent of all TV sets in the country.
And there for all to see sat the Ludwig name emblazoned on Ringo’s drums. The revolution had begun.
Demand for Ludwig drums soared. To keep pace, Ludwig expanded its
Chicago plant, added a shift and churned out nothing but copies of
Ringo’s black oyster pearl wrap for 3 1/2 years.
“I’m the best advert Ludwig ever had,” he said.
Ringo never visited the Monroe plant, but lots of other artists have, including Taylor Swift drummer Matt Billingslea, Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz with “Weird Al,” REO Speedwagon’s Alan Gratzer and Matt Frenette of Loverboy.
They all signed drum heads displayed in the lobby. On his, Frenette
wrote, “Thank you all for everything you've stood for in music.”
Ludwig welcomes stars and fans alike on its tours.
North of Boston, 48-year-old Realtor Lawrence Figliola has played
Ludwig drums ever since high school when he first jammed with local rock
bands. After his wife, Brenda, 49, learned about the tours on Facebook, they planned a January vacation to Monroe with their boys, wanna-be drummers Gino, 9, and Rocco, 7.
They loved it, and even got a glimpse of Ringo’s drum kit being packed up.
It was an honor, Lawrence said, to see where his drums come from.
“I’m very proud to play an American-made drum,” he said. “I’ve got three
Ludwig kits now, and I’d never sell them. I want them to stay in the
family.”
Ludwig artists
You can click on the links to see drum solos by the artists on
their Ludwig kits. Top artists signed by Ludwig to play their drums
include: Ringo Starr, Questlove with The Roots and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Alex Van Halen, Lenny Kravitz, Patrick Carney with The Black Keys, Matt Billingslea with Taylor Swift, Alan White with Yes, Bun E. Carlos with Cheap Trick, Matt Flynn with Maroon 5, Jim Riley with Rascal Flatts, Meg White with The White Stripes and Carl Palmer with both Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Asia.
The Monroe plant has produced drums since the mid-’80s. Prior to
that, drums were built in Chicago. Top historical endorsers include: John Bonham with Led Zeppelin, Karen Carpenter, Buddy Rich, Mitch Mitchell with Jimi Hendrix, Ginger Baker with Cream, Ed Shaughnessy of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and Joey Kramer with Aerosmith.
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