Actually I will say late 1970. I have been tracking drums from around then as I was born 12/18/70. I have a WMP set dated Dec 18 1970 and the numbers start with 830XXX.

I also saw a set on ebay with the supra dated 12/18/70 and it's number was 830933. I would guess your drum is from Nov-Dec 1970. I don't know exactly when they started using the paper tags but I thought it was 1971 and even then the original paper tags had the actual date stamp after the word "date".

I have a mod orange clubdate dated Jan 5 1971 and it came with an acro. The 12" tom(the only one that has a date stamp) has a higher serial number than the bass and floor tom whicjh makes me think they may have been Dec or Nov 1970. The acro has a paper tag like yours and a much higher serial number and the 4272 on the tag. It makes me think that since mod orange was prob not the greatest selling color, the wrap was close to being discontinued and the acro looked like it is from 1972 that maybe the set was built in 1970, stamped 1971 and put with an acro from 1972 and later sold. I would'nt be suprised if your acro shell was put together(or least badged) in 1970 and finally put together in 1972(hence the paper tag). Honestly will never really know how or why things were done. Of coarse nobody cared or thought about those things then when the drums were being built.

I would add a caution about interpretting the "4272" as indicating a date from 1972. I have been gathering information on the "Date Codes" which Ludwig used for a period of time on its paper labels. I have record of 117 different B/O badge drums which have Date Codes. The serial numbers on these drums range from 825829 to 938355. These serial numbers appear to span the 1970-1972 time frame.

Ludwig also used Date Codes on its second line Standards in the 1971-72 time frame. I have recorded 18 of these.

At this point, I have not yet been able to determine if there is any imbedded meaning within the Date Code. Because all have either a "71" or "72" within them, it is therefore tempting to say that these indicate a year of manufacture. However, there are too many inconsistencies in the Date Codes for me to make that declaration.

Information about Date Codes is posted at: http://www.gretschdrumdatingguide.com/ludwig-serial-number-dating-projects.html (scroll to the bottom of the page). Any help solving the puzzle of the Date Code would be greatly appreciated.

Rick

I'm just wondering if some 'Date Codes' were in Code?

For example - the drum maker would start with 1 and continue in sequece.....1...2....3....4 etc etc but....he would assign large numbers (on the shell or paper tag) pretty much any number he wanted to each drum going out the door. So #1 might be 1472 and #2 1473 or 11758 for that matter and only the drum maker would have the real sequence cataloged. So - ten years down the road the drum maker could look at a drum someone had and if it said 11753 on the shell....he could look in his "book" of Date Codes and it might say Oct 7th 1972 Drum # 15 - the 15th drum ever to be made by him.

Do they do that? Just asking.

Kona,

I have not yet been able to discern the meaning of the Date Codes. I have recorded 17 different codes in the 135 drums I have seen. Certain ones appear frequently while others have only been seen once.

There may not be any logic in the codes and they may not contain any indication of a date. These could be some sort of employee number or batch number.

For now, I continue to gather examples, share them and ask if anyone can sense a pattern.

Rick

any idea when they stopped including the paper tag inside? i have a 76 acro with no paper tag. who knows maybe someone peeled it off but it doesnt have any residue anywhere...