Welcome to the Forum! That is a great score of a kit.

That snare might be a cut down. I have a 50's Radioking snare and none of the edges look like that where the screws are placed. Even on my 30's Broadcaster shell, that I am cutting down myself. Even the photo with the butt plate, it doesn't look even.

Found a few photos online. One is the inside with the same lugs, the other is with offset lugs, so they did do that. But I don't think they would ever route the re-ring. Also found one with the same strainer system, single lug, but still no cuts in the ring.

Now I don't necessarily know if this was a cut down from a tom, could have been a deeper snare that was cut down. But to me, it shows signs of being that.

Jay is right on his assessment. It was probably a 8x14" that was sadly cut down,

You're cutting down a Broadcaster?!?!

I unfortunately had to. In between the bottom two re-rings, at some point the shell had been punctured. There was no way to properly fix the lack of wood. I had never realized how bad it was until the wrap was removed. The wrap had been stapled where the damage was, hiding what monster truly lurked beneath. The lower half was in really rough shape. And at some point when the original lugs were taken off and swapped with MIJ lugs, because they weren't the same exact size, they pulled the shell outwards on the lower half. I didn't want to cut mine down, but sadly there wasn't much I could do to avoid it. Under any other circumstance I wouldn't have cut the shell. If it was 100%, I wouldn't dream of it.

Also not 100% on it being a Broadcaster. I think based on the strainer It's a Universal model.

Might not be a cut-down - I have a 8X12 tom with the same kind of cutting into the re-ring, in this case for the dampers. The difference from the ones pictured is the massive re-ring - anything beyond lugs on the shell and you're going to have to cut into that thing...

I'll post some pics tomorrow...

Mitch

[QUOTE=DownTownFarmer;368526]Might not be a cut-down - I have a 8X12 tom with the same kind of cutting into the re-ring, in this case for the dampers. The difference from the ones pictured is the massive re-ring - anything beyond lugs on the shell and you're going to have to cut into that thing...

That's what is still confusing to me.. is if it was a cut down I'm wondering still about the lugs because wouldn't the spacing have to be different from a 7x14 than a 5.5x14 and if they cut it down wouldn't they be off for the original lugs and screws? maybe not but i feel like if you cut just one side down it would be off and looking at the wrap around the edges there does not appear to be any cut signs. Unless whoever did the cut down did a perfect job.

The one thing for me that's striking is the off set lugs. You'd think with a shallow shell they would have gone with center lugs. Anyway you can post some more photos of the snare? Might sound tedious, but if you could get close to the wrap on the " supposed cut side " maybe something may give it away.

I'm saying 100% it's a cut down. The reinforcement hoop is big like it's from a tom shell of that era. I have a few radio king snares and not a single one has large reinforcement hoops. Plus, the hoop that is cut into looks larger than the lower one. Maybe it's camera angle.. imho

jason

This is of course true, so if it was cut down, it was cut down at the factory. This is of course possible, as it was human beings working there. :) Or maybe someone wanted a big re-ring on top thinking it would help them really crank the batter...

Mitch