awwww yeah - after 11 years, the snare throw on my ludwig black beauty broke - this fit perfectly and actually is better than what came on the original drum. works great!

I had been thinking about upgrading my Ludwig 1968 Supraphonic for a long time. It sounds fantastic but the old Throw Off had become problematic. Hard to dial in the correct tension and using ropes and wires was difficult. The wires never seemed to hold their tension and no amount of dry lube would alleviate the clunky throw off mechanism. To be fair, it served the drum well for over 50 years.

The new Throw Off is great. The tension dial clicks into position and the throw off is silky smooth.

The product info lists it compatible with my Throw Off but I discovered that while the Throw Off attached beautifully to the original holes in the drum, the Butt Plate was a problem. The holes didn't line up and would have required drilling into the drum to install. Not going to happen as I would like to keep the option of returning the drum back to original specs.

I kept the old Butt Plate on the drum which is fine. I am now using nylon straps instead of cord to hold the wires and the difference is night and day.

If the Butt Plate would have fit perfectly, I would have given this 5 stars. If you can live with using the old plate, I highly recommend getting this for you drum.

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the p88ac comes with a butt plate as well, it was not an exact fit for the original on my 1977 Ludwig Acrolite, so I did not replace it because I didn't want to drill more holes. The P88 throw-off was an exact fit for the P85, looks great operates flawlessly. Nice Upgrade to get the old snare running again.

Vintage Ludwig Supraphonic snare drums were terrific snares with terrible throw-offs: the P85. Using the P85 required two hands to use it stiff, balky lever. The P88 throw-off fixes the problem beautifully and at a reasonable price. Happily, the P88AC bolts are spaced perfectly for the holes the P85 needed in old Supraphonics, so the change is easy.
The P88AC replacement throw-off is smooth, and easily used by one-hand while playing. Its ratcheted adjustment knob is far superior to the non-ratcheted knob of the P85 and holds the snares in place with far less slippage. This means an end to frequent adjustment of snare tension between songs.
With the P88AC throw-off Ludwig's Superphonic snare drums become SUPERBphonics -- still the best sounding snare ever, but without the one big flaw working drummers really disliked.
Recommendation: When you replace your original P85, don't throw it away. If you ever sell your vintage Supraphonic, having all the original parts with it maximize its selling price to collectors.

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I've used a half dozen of these P88 throw offs, and they are so much better than the old P85s. I've seen some complaints on the but plate, due to the mount hole locations, but that is because the aren't looking at the second set of mounting holes in the casting. If you remove the rubber covers on the but plate, there are two additional holes present that are spaced exactly like those of the older Ludwig but plates. Yea, they're not threaded, but that's easy to fix with a tap or thread-rolling screw.

Took care of a problem I was having perfectly! Thanks so much!

Robusto, solido y encajo perfecto con mi Black beauty de 14x5
100% RECOMENDADO

This is not an upgrade from the P85 throw off. I thought I'd deck out my Acro with this, but it didn't last ten minutes before I put the original throw off back on. Not to mention the butt plate isn't even the right spacing for one of the most common Ludwig drums ever made. Chrome plating is thin and just feels cheap. The little detent on the tension knob might be cool, but also feels super cheap like it would fail after a short time. I'd rather duct tape my wires to my snare than use this.