I did some sorting of my list of date stamped Ludwigs and can report the following:
354 drums with reported 1966 Date Stamps.
186 of these are snare drums, broken down as follows:
1 Jazz Combo
2 Downbeats
30 Pioneers
30 Jazz Festivals
7 Marching Snares
1 - 6.5x14 Symphonic
2 - 5.5x14 Classic
42 Acrolites
1 - 10 lug Acrolite
59 - 5x14 Supraphoncs
2 - 6.5x14 Supraphonics
5 - 5x14 Supersensitives
4 - 6.5x14 Supersensitives
Of the 30 Jazz Festivals, the wrap/finish breakdown is as follows:
3 Black Diamond Pearl
1 Black Lacquer
1 Blue Lacquer
6 Blue Sparkle
1 Burgundy Sparkle
1 Champagne Sparkle
1 Gold Sparkle
4 Oyster Black Pearl
2 Red Sparkle
2 Silver Sparkle
4 Sky Blue Pearl
4 White Marine Pearl
Three of the 30 Pioneers had White Marine Pearl wraps.
Of the 354 drums with 1966 Date Stamps, the wraps/finishes on six were not reported, leaving 348 with known wraps/finishes. Of these, 35 had White Marine Pearl wrap, including the four Jazz Festivals and the three Pioneers.
Notes and Caveats:
1. This is a small sampling of the drums which were made, so be careful drawing conclusions based upon what might not be a true representative sample.
2. The list is comprised of drums either listed for sale on eBay, drum forums, Craigslist, Goodwill, other drum sellers sites and drums owned but not for sale shown in publications, drum forums or reported by their owners to me or someone else involved in the data gathering effort. The source of information may skew the results, as it is weighted toward drums for sale, not drums being held in collections or by players.
3. Not all drums have date stamps, not all date stamps are readable, and not all those with date stamps had date stamps reported.
So, as far as how rare is a White Marine Pearl 1966 date stamped Jazz Festival snare? Hard to tell. The bigger question may be the one K.O. raises - How many 1966 snares were Jazz Festival models vs. Acrolites or Supraphonics?
