Ludwig Vintage circa 63-65 No. 404 Acrolite. The Ludwig No. 404 Acrolite was introduced in the 1963 catalog as the first all metal shell low priced snare drum.  It was considered their student line snare drum but has become a favorite of collectors, professional gigging drummers, studio drummers and just about everyone else that has ever played one. This piece is extremely clean, probably the cleanest we have ever seen and definitely the cleanest we have ever offered for sale. The small keystone brass Chicago badge is #96514 (not that the numbering does much real good in dating as Ludwig was famously helter skelter with number sequences and extremely inconsistent). It has the original P-83 chrome throw-off, original low profile chrome script logo P-32, original white felt baseball bat P-4067 tone control muffler (this is probably the best indicator of date of manufacture as Ludwig switched from red felt to white felt at the very end of 63 and had completely abandon the baseball bat muffler on Acrolite snare drums by mid to late 65 and had gone to the P-4066 with the small knob for tone control mufflers) and 8 original self aligning twin lugs affectionately referred to as "Bow Tie Lugs" as well as 16 original tension rods with original washers. The rims ARE NOT ORIGINAL. The rims are a pair of brand new Gibraltar 2.3mm rims. When we acquired this piece it had a badly corroded batter rim that was period correct and composition (COS) correct for this drum, but as stated was in very bad condition that did not align with the condition of this piece at all so we really doubt it was the original batter rim. The snare side rim was a (COB) chrome over brass rim which was definitely not original to this drum as Ludwig never placed COB rims on Acrolite snare drums. Additionally we do have the original Ludwig snare side head as well as the original plastic end snare wires (both in relatively good condition), if there is any interest in acquiring them as well. The heads and snare wires are brand new generics from Drum Factory Direct and even with inexpensive heads and wires this drum sounds amazing.

Catalog pictures are for reference only and are from the 1963 and 1964 catalogs.