What started as a simple change out of a P85 throw off for the new P88AC throw off expanded a bit but still a pretty fast project.

After reading Mark's (Idrum4fun) thread his Rogers snare, I asked him a couple of questions. He told me that he chases the threads on the lugs so I got a 12-24 tap and did that for my Supraphonic lugs. Wow, there was a lot of crud in those threads. There will be a photo showing what came out. Mark, thanks for the tip!

I call this Supraphonic a player's drum because I play it. I did save the P85 throw off just in case. Some notes about the P88AC is that Ludwig provides no installation diagram and what comes in the box doesn't match what the photo in the advertisement shows. I still haven't heard back from the eBay seller on this.

I knew from reading about the throw off that I would have to tap holes in the snare butt to make it line up with my Supraphonic hole spacing. The holes are already on the butt so I used an 8#-32 tap and it worked well. I did not drill the holes any deeper and this caused the next issue to be resolved. The shortest screws that came with the P88AC were too long to secure the snare butt and the P88AC only comes with one pair of grommets to install. I chose to use the grommets on the throw off and not the snare butt. I ended up getting some 8#-32 screw covers and cut them down to make a grommet. This worked. I did have to enlarge the holes in the drum slightly to allow the 8#-32 screws to go through the shell. With that solved I went on to cleaning up the lugs and the shells. I found some 70's Supraphonic tension rods on eBay that were in very good condition. I bought new Remo Ambassador coated batter and hazy snare heads and a Puresound 24 brass snare wires.

I used a little white lithium grease on the rods and I was amazed how well they went into the lugs not only because of the grease but because of Mark's tip on chasing the threads to get the crud out. I also put some felt around each spring in the lugs to reduce the chance of metal to metal sound.

The drum is back together and sounds great. I got the stamp of approval from my drum teacher as well.

I will have a couple of more threads with photos following this post.

Next time I change heads on my drums I will definitely chase the threads.

Mark,

Thanks for the tip. I may give that a try. I’m assuming that you are chasing the threads manually.

I started out just changing out the P85 throw off with the P88AC. I tapped the unthreaded holes in the snare butt so the spacing matches the Supraphonic. I had to use plastic spacers to get the snare butt on tight.

I’m also putting on 24 brass wire Sound Percussion Custom Pro snare wires, so then I bought new Ambassador heads as well.

About half of my tension rods where rusted and I found a nice set of rods on eBay to replace them.

So the little project has expanded quite a bit.