According to Bill Ludwig, Jr., Ludwig bought the rights to the GHOST in 1975. I'm quite sure the catalog I had was from 1976, and the GHOST was in it. I have a 1975 catalog, and the Ghost is not in it. I have a 1980 catalog, and there is an ad for it in there. As you can see on the pedal above (click it for the large version), the color is now a plain gray. (Is it me, or does it look like the same color gray as a Speed King?) The two holes in the foot board are gone, and now sport a Ludwig logo. The screw for the beater height is a wing screw. This was the last incarnation of the GHOST. As you can see on the spring cover to the right, Ludwig also added their logo to this. I would surmise the GHOSTs with the Ludwig logo on the spring cover are very late models, as you can find Ludwig pedals with the name on the footboard, but not the spring caps.

Why was the GHOST discontinued? Bill Ludwig Jr. said it was a maintenance issue. The clock springs were so hard to get in place, if a drummer took the GHOST's spring caps off, and the spring jumped out, it would basically go back to Ludwig for repair. There's an anecdotal story that one day, at the Ludwig plant, a spring came loose with such force that it injured a Ludwig employee, causing severe lacerations to his face. Ludwig discontinued the pedal in 1981.