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Available in four PVC wrap finishes: Black Diamond Pearl, White Marine Pearl, Silver Sparkle and Black Oyster Pearl

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The Fab4 is a special edition of Ludwig’s budget Accent series, which seeks to cash in on – sorry, celebrate – the fact that Ringo Starr played a four-piece Ludwig back in his Beatles days. Ludwig has already had a fair success with its more up-market version of Ringo’s kit, the classic four-ply maple, and this is a considerably cheaper alternative.

It is, however, by Accent standards, not that cheap at all. In fact it’s 50 percent dearer than the best of the normal Accent range. There are several reasons for this, the major one being that this kit is manufactured in Taiwan whereas the normal Accent series is knocked out in mainland China. Ludwig’s Chinese-made Accent CS Custom Elite kit has a lacquered glitter finish that would grace a kit twice the price – and it had 100 percent birch shells, all for a suggested retail of £850.

Now the Fab4 version has a wrap finish and eight-ply basswood-Philippines mahogany shells. Surely that’s a step down? Active Music’s Lee Worsley valiantly argues Ludwig’s case by claiming: the standard of manufacture in Taiwan is higher than in China, more on a par with Ludwig’s American-made products.

Although you’d normally think an all-birch shell is better than a basswood-Philippines mahogany shell, in fact the quality of the Taiwanese timber and finish is more consistent than the Chinese birch. The same applies to the hardware. Lee reckons the Taiwanese metalwork is superior to the Chinese.

Finally, the actual vintage wraps are expensive. The black diamond pearl of the review kit looks authentic, and anyone who’s tried to buy deep pearls and glitter wraps will know they’re not cheap.

Sparkling Pearls

There are three other wraps on offer, among the most popular finishes from the ‘60s: White Marine Pearl, Silver Sparkle and Black Oyster Pearl. Sadly, the latter is not exactly the same as Ringo’s ‘60s wrap, but that’s what is available today.

Moving on to the actual set-up, true to the ‘60s there is a 16”x16” floor tom and a 13”x9” rack tom mounted on a 22”x14” bass drum. The shallow 14” kick is certainly authentic but the snare is a 14”x6 1/2”. Ringo always used a 14”x5”.

According to Lee again, Ludwig is just responding to the current market – they sell more 61/2”deep snares than 5” models. The snare has strange bridge versions of the double-ended classic lug. This accords with today’s quest for minimal shell contact, but we can’t help thinking the 14”x5” that accompanied the Accent Elite was more like Ringo’s than this ‘70s-style model.