My First Ludwig Acrolite

Brian

Gold Member
After reading so many cheerful threads of people picking up new and used gear, I picked up this drum for one hundred. Good to very good condition, I believe it's an early 90's. Thoughts/opinions?

I've spent a half hour or so tuning it through the different pitches and notes, but with the original resonant head and a fair Evans coated batter. Didn't get a good feel for the lower tuning ranges, I'll spend more time tomorrow, and with different heads. Cranked up sounds very nice. I'm excited to give this drum a proper introduction. :)
 

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Congratulations! $100 was a very good price. Could you possibly put a picture on showing the Ludwig badge on the snare?
 
Nice drum!

Acrolites (like all metal Ludwig snares) can handle a pretty wide range of tuning, but new heads would probably help dial in a better low tuning, as would a little Moongel.
 
Congrats on the Black Galaxy Acrolite, AKA "Blacrolite".

I imagine it'll be your favorite snare shortly. My drums don't leave the house without my "Blacrolite", most often as the primary, not the back-up!
 
Congratulations! Just great workhorse drums, and by changing heads, snares, tunings, you can make it sound like whatever you want it to. Don't ever let it get away!
 
Thanks for the responses, all. Yeah, this one's a keeper, especially for the $. Here's a pic with the badge. The owner said he bought it in the late 90's, and was used.
 

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Here's a pic with the badge. The owner said he bought it in the late 90's, and was used.

Black and white badged drums are difficult to date precisely. Your snare is most likely is from the late 80's.
 
Black and white badged drums are difficult to date precisely. Your snare is most likely is from the late 80's.
To my knowledge, the blacrolite was introduced in 1993. The serial is 6216641.

Just finished cleaning and polishing all of the pieces and it looked like it was never taken apart. Tiny spots of rust here and there were easily removed, otherwise in awesome shape. Sharp looking drum for sure..another "after" pic to come.
 
To my knowledge, the blacrolite was introduced in 1993. The serial is 6216641.

Just finished cleaning and polishing all of the pieces and it looked like it was never taken apart. Tiny spots of rust here and there were easily removed, otherwise in awesome shape. Sharp looking drum for sure..another "after" pic to come.

You are correct on the 1993 intro. I mistakenly was dating the badge as it was started in the mid/late 80s on the Rocker series. There seem to be no credible records on the black/white badge serial numbers. so a specific date is not really possible for now.
 
Some of my practice drums, the new acrolite is in action. :)
 

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Brian - nice drums, are those 1950's Ludwigs, WFL's or Leedy's?
I had Blacrolite. Stupidly sold it. Its my fave colour of the 'Acro' family.
 
Brian - nice drums, are those 1950's Ludwigs, WFL's or Leedy's?
I had Blacrolite. Stupidly sold it. Its my fave colour of the 'Acro' family.
Thanks, yes the drums are Leedy&Ludwig mid 50's. There's a 13" shell that is missing a lug, but I don't like mounting the 2nd tom anyway. The 13" tom (mounted) is the mid-60s Ludwig w/ serial badge, it's the only thing of value for the kit really. lol

Love the Blacrolite and it's great they are accessible for a very low price. Did you have any attachment to the one you had? Lots of gigs? I could see myself gigging this drum.
 
I'm glad you enjoy it. Great price, too. Me, I've had four (4) of these and eventually let go of all of them. Of course, I was following the general lore. However, no matter how hard I tried to love them, I never could force myself to become an ardent admirer. Eventually I gave up on the Acro altogether.

It was only after trying a couple of the gray ones that I've become interested again. I've found the blacro and the older grey model to be two very different animals...
 
I'm glad you enjoy it. Great price, too. Me, I've had four (4) of these and eventually let go of all of them. Of course, I was following the general lore. However, no matter how hard I tried to love them, I never could force myself to become an ardent admirer. Eventually I gave up on the Acro altogether.

It was only after trying a couple of the gray ones that I've become interested again. I've found the blacro and the older grey model to be two very different animals...
I've heard this too...noticed the re-sale value for the 80's B/O badged ones to be much less and have heard they just don't sound the same as the 60's-70's, or the newer models. Any truth there, because I want to buy another. :D
 
I just bought this snare with the backpack and stand on eBay. I've been wanting an Acro and like the Black Galaxy finish a lot so I pulled the trigger. I've been seeing conflicting opinions on whether it sounds the same as vintage Acros. I hope I'm not disappointed.
 
I have a Galaxy Black Acrolite, too. To me it sounds fantastic. I enjoy plying it very much. Experiment with the tuning. I have a G1 batter head / hazy 300 reso with Puresound wires. A G2 or a HD Dry head will sound good, too. Just don't use the muffler with the HD head.
 
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