Overview
You might well ask why this is listed on its own, rather than just being included with the standard 14"x6.5" Maple Deluxe / Traditional Maple, given that the standard range is also Flat Black.
And that's a perfectly valid question. Here's why: this one happens to have all-black hardware.
Black Panthers in the standard 5.1mm Maple range are all listed with gold hardware*, both on the initial Maple Deluxe and later badged Black Panther versions.
There's the possibility that it was, like the coloured versions, produced to match an Orion kit - there's certainly a Special Edition Flat Black Orion with black hardware listed in the 2000 Catalogue. But the long-term prior owner of this example (Alex Wicheard) doesn't think it was, the matching snares in that catalogue are all badged Black Panthers, and this example was made in June 1998.
Alternatively, maybe it was an option on the standard range, and I just simply haven't found any details of it yet. I don't have any 1998 or 1999 Mapex catalogues, it's not necessarily the sort of minor variation you'd see covered in the magazines or on adverts, and the website didn't launch until July 2000. There are one or two other examples I've seen online, but they don't provide any further background information.
So, there you go. It's got its own listing...at least for now.
*The Maple series that came with chrome hardware had a thicker 8mm shell; Tristan at Drum Attic double checked and this one is definitely 5.1mm. Also, we're not talking about the Birds Eye Maple series, or the Black Laquered Maple that replaced the standard Traditional Maple line in 2007. They do have black hardware, but they are different series. The Maple 10"x5.5" released in 1999 did have black hardware, but the rest of the range continued with 24K gold right up until the range was retired.
Photos courtesy of Tristan at Drum Attic. Cheers Tristan!
