New to me Acrolite

ron s

Senior Member
I finally found a Ludwig Acrolite at a decent price. Contrary to rumours, I have not been able to find anything on Ebay that was around $100.
I bid on a few, but came up short. Per advice gleaned from this forum, I was looking for an Acro without the "painted" finish.Would have loved a keystone badge, but they were all more than I wanted to spend.
I found one at my local shop, which was great, since they run an awesome shop, and I prefer to support them.

I was told it was a late 70"s model-Pics to follow...

Anyway- it has just enough scratches to give it a "vintage" vibe, but it is in good shape overall. I paid $129 for it with new heads and snares included.
This snare sounds as good as my $350 maple snare. The comments on the Acrolite being such a great bang for the buck drum are very accurate. The drum has just the right amount of "ring" and I am playing with the tuning (Aquarian single ply coated), and medium seems like the fat tone I am looking for.

Score another one for the knowledge and recommendations here.

Very happy with this purchase
 
Congrats Ron and enjoy. I have one of the reissue 6.5" x 14" Acrolites and it's definitely in the top 2-3 snares I've owned. I use it all the time for everything.

Great all 'rounder!

Chris
 
By using the same shell as the more expensive supraphonic,Ludwig did the drum world a favor,and made IMHO,the best "student" model snare drum,of all time.The acrolite is a drum that is in quite a few pros arsenals,because of it's tuning range and verstility.It's also been in production since 63,not counting earlier prototypes.Deffinately a snare drum legend .Congradulations on your purchase....and play it till your hands bleed...:)

Steve B
 
I got my Acro on Ebay for $90. I was lucky that it was listed as "Ludwig Snare", so searching for an "Acrolite" wouldn't bring it up. $130 landed in Australia.
Needed new heads and snare, but the hardware was in great condition.

Sometimes you can be lucky.
 
I got mine for $100 from a local shop. It needed some new heads (PCRD/Clear 300) and some polishing, and the vent hole grommet is missing. I have been using it almost exclusively with my Tama kit ever since I got it. I have a Pork Pie Big Black, but now I only use that for my gigs. I love this Acro, it's a damn fine snare drum. I still love the BoB though, but it sure is hard to say which one I love more.
 
I got mine for free. A little hard to g heads on and getting a new strainer, but this is my 3rd one and I'm keeping it!
 
Here are some pics of my new to me Acrolite.

I tuned it a bit higher yesterday ( about a full turn on the snare side and half a turn on the batter side), and I like it even better.
It sounds great with the snares off too.

I think I will be using this for all my gigs now-definitely my new fave..

Serial number is 2055808 b/o badge- Can anyone decipher this as to build date?
Drum shop said he thought it was '78-'79 ??
 

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Very nice find, nice price too!

I have a '75-'76 with the same shell, but mine still has the "pointed' B/O.
Not sure what year they started with the rounded edges on the badge.
My serial number is 1214746

Enjoy your drum!
 
RON S,

your serial number indicates later than 1979.
According to the serial number guides, 1979 ended with 2013537.
Yours also has the rounded corner badge, which they started doing in 1979.
Your shell looks anodised, not powdercoated. My guess is 1980 to 1983.
In 1984 they went to the powdercoated finish.

This thread seems to have the most info on the Acro :-

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30000

Wayne
 
Also, your muffler knob seems to be the shorter shank type with the two plastic washers, and uses the bottom hole, with the small bolt in the upper hole.
My '76 one is a longer shank knob, and uses the upper hole, with the small bolt in the lower hole. I don't know when this change was made, but from photo's I have seen, I think it was somewhere between 78 - 79.

But who cares, you have an ACROLITE. Rejoice.

Wayne
 
I'm going to say,later than 79.and earlier then 81.You have what's called the B/O 3,rounded corner badge,which Ludwig started using in 79 ,or there abouts.Serial numbers in 82,went up to around 2300000.So I could safely say late 80.But it really dosen't matter,as those snares are so ubiquitious,only the earlier 60's keystone badged ones,and the protypes,and the NYC board of ed drums are collectable.

Steve B
 
Nice!

I have 3 acros - a 1965 keystone badge, which is my favorite, a newer Blacrolite and a gray-speckled shell that I'm pimping out with tube lugs, single-flanged hoops and a P-86.
 
I scored an orphaned acro shell a few months ago, it was just too good a deal to pass up. I tried my hand at polishing it with sad results. Now I have it outfitted with Imperial lugs and a P-86 strainer. I just swapped the 42 strand wires from my new snare onto the Acro and is sounds deee-lish. My 3rd 14x5 Aluminum Luddy that I've owned and I finally have it dialed in to sounds great.

Now that's not a knock on Luddy quality. They're great snares. I thought something was wrong with ME because I couldn't tune a very popular snare to my liking. Got it in the higher range. I believe it was 90 on the batter and 85 on the reso per my Drumdial. I put the wires on there and Blammity! A nice dry sound with plenty of crack and enough sensitivity for Jazz. Pic of it in my "Snares" thread.

I'm only sad that it took my this long...
 
Thanks for the info- so my Acrolite is probably 1980-82 or so.
I was just curious, I had asked my local drum shop to look out for any Acrolite that was not powdercoated. The info I read online said that the blackrolite and powdercoated are not as resonant as the earlier ones??

In any event, I am very happy with this snare, especially for what I paid. 1st gig with it this Sat!!
 
When buying Acrolites on eBay and other sites, never search for "Acrolite", as they will always be >$100. Search for "Ludwig Snare" and sort by ascending price.

The reason is that anyone who knows that the drum is an Acro will charge full price. You want to buy from people that don't know what they have. Example:

I just paid $51 for an Acro, case, and stand.

The reason it was $51 was because they put it under "Rockers Ludwig", which is what the batter head says on it. You often see Acros sold as "Remo Snare", "Evans Snare" and "Weatherking Snare"


Here's an identical one on ebay for $37 currently.
Here's a Blackrolite with case and stand currently at $11.50
 
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The magic Acrolite!

I was skeptical for a good long while because while looking for an Acrolite, I had purchased a pitted Supraphonic for $80, figuring it would be a very similar drum.

My Supra is LOUD, so loud I only use it for outdoor playing; it overpowers the rest of the kit indoors. And while it sounded fine, it was hardly as magical as I had heard Acrolites are supposed to be.

Fast forward about a year and I spotted an Acrolite on CL for $60, sans strainer and top hoop, both of which I had in my parts bin.

Put it all together, tuned it a little higher than I do with my wooden snares, and BANG, there's that magical tone. Just wonderful, rich, complex, everything people say about the Acrolite. I recorded some drum tracks with it and they sounded killer.

The only thing I can think of is that the mass of the extra, heavier imperial lugs makes the Supraphonic sound so much different.

Anyway, congratulations; I concur with the common wisdom that every drummer should have an Acrolite in their snare collection, or at least give it a try.
 
Congrats on that find. I recently acquired a Blacrolite and despite what some people say I think it sounds great. These are great snares for the price. Enjoy.
 
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