A Different Supraphonic

[Drumolator]

I bought this from eBay eight or ten years ago for about $80. I was playing it at church. I think it is from the early 70s. Can any of you vintage drum experts tell me more about it? Peace and goodwill.

[trickg]

How many lugs does it have? It looks like it has 8 - I wonder if it was some sort of special order chromed Acrolite.

[xJcx]

i thought supras had imperial lugs....
im no expert on ludwig snares so im just making an observation.

[erwinner]

I think it was chromed later in its life... But was born an Acrolite.

[barjack]

Looks like a Supraphonic shell with bowtie lugs installed. You can tell its not an Acrolite because the B/O badge is not directly to the left of the throwoff. On an 8 lug B/O Acrolite, the muffler wheel, badge, and throw are all mounted to adjacent panels. On a Supraphonic, the order from right to left goes "throwoff-blank-blank-badge-muffler wheel".

[trickg]

I think it was chromed later in its life... But was born an Acrolite.

Unless it has 10 lugs - then it was born a Supra, but was outfitted with Acrolite lugs due to a shortage of Imperial lugs.

Gotta love the Supra/Acro shell though. I was doing some recording this last week and the snare that wound up staying on the kit due to its sound was my refinished $30 used Acrolite.

[erwinner]

But it's just got 8 lugs... Never seen an 8 Lug Supra before.

[trickg]

Looks like a Supraphonic shell with bowtie lugs installed. You can tell its not an Acrolite because the B/O badge is not directly to the left of the throwoff. On an 8 lug B/O Acrolite, the muffler wheel, badge, and throw are all mounted to adjacent panels. On a Supraphonic, the order from right to left goes "throwoff-blank-blank-badge-muffler wheel".

He raises a good point:

[barjack]

But it's just got 8 lugs... Never seen an 8 Lug Supra before.

It sure does look that way from the photo, but I'm betting that its an optical illusion caused by a wideangle lens. Drumolator, does the drum have 8 or 10 lugs?

[erwinner]

Quick Google search turned up this beauty from '65.
http://www.drumforum.org/index.php?/...ght-lug-supra/
Ludwig was the kind of company that would make anything for anyone, if they wanted enough of them...
They did do the 6.5 Acro with 10 Lugs in a batch for the NYC schools back in the day...
I guess the options are:
A: All original
B: Actual 8 lug Supra with replacement bowtie lugs
C: Acro rechromed with strange badge placement and the sticker inside like a Supra
D: Something totally assembled from parts after the factory.

[trickg]

It sure does look that way from the photo, but I'm betting that its an optical illusion caused by a wideangle lens. Drumolator, does the drum have 8 or 10 lugs?

Comparing the pic of mine with the pic in the first photo, there is more space between my lugs than on this one.

Didn't Ludwig move facilities at one point and they finished up some drums with parts they had on hand at the one place before getting cranking in another? Would that have caused the discrepancy where bowtie lugs were used instead of Imperial lugs?

[Drumolator]

It has ten lugs. I should have made that more obvious in the pictures. Thanks for the responses.

[barjack]

It has ten lugs. I should have made that more obvious in the pictures. Thanks for the responses.

Nice, pics can sometimes be decieving. You have a standard Supraphonic from the 1970's with Acrolite Bowtie lugs. It's a fairly common occurance, the original Imperial lugs were at many points more valuable than the bowties so people would swap off the Imperials and sell them elsewhere. Nice drum.

Didn't Ludwig move facilities at one point and they finished up some drums with parts they had on hand at the one place before getting cranking in another? Would that have caused the discrepancy where bowtie lugs were used instead of Imperial lugs?

This Supra does have the rounded-edge B/O badge which indicates that it was built towards the end of the Chicago era. However, there has never been a point to my knowledge that a Supra was given bowties from the factory- it was their flagship model and an iconic drum. Ludwig DID, however, use plenty of Classic lugs randomly on Rocker kits long after Rocker had moved to the Ludwig Standard lug.

[Ohio Drumworks]

There was a brief time period during the move from Chicago to Monroe that Supras came from the factory with bowtie lugs, but they're very rare and it's all but impossible to cement the authenticity. More than likely your drum is as other have said, assembled from spare parts or had the lugs switched out by a previous owner for aesthetic reasons.

[Drumolator]

Couldn't someone have ordered it that way? It seems unlikely to me that someone assembled it from parts, unless someone just had a bunch of shells and lugs sitting around. It is good snare though. Thanks for all of the responses.