Scored this beauty today. Was the first to respond and seller held it for me. Bought from original owner who got it in High School. Aug 27 1970 date stamp. Will clean up nicely. How rare are these in 5x14?
All original, heads, snares, case, stand and key!
Mike Layton will have your answer.
Interesting. Did the original owner say they bought it this way new or is there a chance they swapped out the bow ties for imperials later on?
Interesting. Did the original owner say they bought it this way new or is there a chance they swapped out the bow ties for imperials later on?
Ludwig was notorious for this type of thing. Different badges, different lugs, etc. When they ran out of bowties, they'd use imperials. Shells were the same way as there are 10 lug Acrolites and 8 lug Supras. Badges were grabbed out of sevral different boxes so kits had both keystone and B/O badges.
Then there were the special order drums. I own a 1976 6.5 Acrolite with factory imperials. Try and find a 1976 6.5 acro......with bowties. One has never been seen or documented.
The story is that if the factory ran low on bow tie lugs on the day of assembly they would substitute Imperial lugs. That didn't happen too often so these are relatively rare. In this case "rare" doesn't mean the expected price doubles but they are certainly of historical interest.
I can't read the serial number on the badge, but I would like to record it along with the date stamp because we're still collecting data to improve the understanding of the relationship between date stamps and serial numbers. Any chance you could let me know? Squinting it looks like it starts 85 but...
Just like the others have said, this happens from time to time with Ludwig. Most of the time it`s a stock issue. some times they will honor a request. It`s not a swap because the drilling is different, it`s ludwig being Ludwig, with too many invoices and not enough to fill the orders. They didn`t even have time to smooth or clean off the glue squeeze inside the wood one`s.
Just for clarification to future readers:
The vertical hole spacing and hole size for the Imperial and Bow Tie lugs is the same. The lugs can be swapped easily as far as I know. I've got two Supras and two Jazz Festivals, but I haven't tried swapping lugs around. The Supra has 10 lugs and the Acro 8 lugs so there is a difference in the number of lugs you need to swap. Another Supra vs Acro difference is the shell finish. Chrome for the Supra. The number of lugs and shell finish mean that in general you could tell one shell from the other whether or not the lugs were swapped. But again, there are always oddities which don't fit the general pattern.
The story is that if the factory ran low on bow tie lugs on the day of assembly they would substitute Imperial lugs. That didn't happen too often so these are relatively rare. In this case "rare" doesn't mean the expected price doubles but they are certainly of historical interest. I can't read the serial number on the badge, but I would like to record it along with the date stamp because we're still collecting data to improve the understanding of the relationship between date stamps and serial numbers. Any chance you could let me know? Squinting it looks like it starts 85 but...
804770 Stamped Aug 27 1970
Yes, the original owner bought it new. He played it in school band in high school and never knew there was a date stamp that could be seen by looking into the grommet hole! He was happy to see it go into a collection. It had been on a closet shelf for 45 years until last week. Based on what I see inside and out, the lugs have not been swapped.
You guys have the answers! Don't need me.
Congrats on your new Acrolite Schmegeggie!
