Okay, so I see there's yet another Jazzette out there! It's a NATURAL MAPLE finish one! BUT...Here's the rub: It's a 14 X 18 bass drum -not a 12 X 18. There are a couple of other anomalous things about it, too. For one thing it has TWO sets of curved spurs! Also, the railmount is mounted off-center so as to facilitate the bass drum mounted cymbal arm.
As far as I know, there is no catalog listing for a 14 X 18 shell, so I assume it was special ordered. Then, I remembered that mlvibes' SBP Jazzette was configured much the same way -except without the double spurs.
I have a difficult time believing that there could be two special order 14 X 18 shells made with offset railmounts. It's such a particular thing to request and, from my perspective, drummers back then didn't know a lot of the "particulars" of drum construction/design to have made such "special order" requests. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But I guess what I am saying is that there must have been some change-over to a 14 X 18 bass drum size sometime during the 70's...I mean a GENERAL change-over and not just a few, special ordered kits.
Didn't wflkurt say that his 70's era silver sparkle Jazzette had a 14 X 18, too?
I have found out a lot of the evolution of the Jazzette configurations, but there is still this gray area regarding the 14 x 18 bass drums with the aforementioned details. It's almost as if the Jazzette became a shrunken version of the earlier Downbeat configuration (12/14/20) -what with the offset rail and bass mounted cymbal arm and curved spurs (although the Downbeat bass drum had the fold-out "gull-wing" spurs and not the penetrating curved spurs).
So, once again, if ANYONE can provide some sort of documented "proof" of when (and IF) a Jazzette bass drum "officially" changed from a 12 X 18 into a 14 X 18, then that would be great. It just seems to make more sense to me that Ludwig might have generally changed that dimensional aspect and just never announced it.
Somewhere -probably in the early-to-mid-1970's, I think that Jazzettes turned a corner. I think by that time, most of the Jazzettes ordered, were likely ordered "as-needed" and not just kept in stock due to high demand for them. Because, by that time, little bass drums and small kits, in general, were on their way out and big drums were on there way in.
Can anyone help me fill in the blanks here?
Thanks!Burger Kin Burger Kin