Hi,
I saw this drum on Ebay recently and it intrigued me so much that I bought it. This drum was sold to me as a Duplex drum but I think it's an early Slingerland snare as does Harry, Mark, Bill and John...many thanks to the Four Apostles of vintage drums for their input. I originally thought that this was a pretty simple drum to deal with but upon further investigation I did discover a few facts and a few quirky things on this drum that I am about to explain.
PRE-1928(?) SLINGERLAND NOB 6 LUG 4x14 UNIVERSAL MODEL
The Shell:
What first got my attention in this auction was the 3-ribbed (bead) one-piece nob shell that is the same shell that was used on Slingerland's late 1920s 8 lug Professional and 10 lug Artist Models. A few more discoveries as to this being a Slingerland drum are found in the 1928 Slingerland Banjo & Drum Company catalog: 1. The use of 12 Slingerland #972 "Metal Drum Collar Screws" (tension rods as we know them to be) plus the smaller Slingerland-type tension rod washers... 2. The use of 12 Slingerland #974 "Metal Drum Hooks" (collar hooks as we know them to be)... 3. The use of 6 Slingerland #968 "4 inch Metal Drum Lugs" (tube lugs)... 4. The top and bottom flat band rims match the 1928 Slingerland catalog description of the Universal Model... 5. The use of the "Junior Snare Throw-off" which is the Duplex strainer that Slingerland used on five of their models until they came up with their own #674 Shur-Grip 4-hole strainer later on... 6. The use of the larger than normal lock washers on the attachment hardware. So that is my proof that this is a Slingerland drum. One discrepancy that I noticed was that my drum has the type of butt plate (12-hole tray) that you would see on a 1912 Ludwig & Ludwig nob snare drum whereas the butt plate listed in the 1928 catalog is the #973 "Metal Drum Strainer Butt" that we all know and have seen on L&L, Slingerland and Leedy drums. The hole spacing on the tray is 1 1/2" c-c and on the Slingerland #973 the hole spacing is 2" c-c. It does look like this butt plate is original to the drum as there are no extra holes. Another oddity is that the top rim does not have any Slingerland USA stamping that is clearly shown in the 1928 catalog (bummer). Maybe this is an un-catalogued pre-1928 drum? I also noticed that the 4" tube lugs have been factory modified in order to clear the top and bottom beads of the 3-bead shell, kind of like the 1912 L&L "Dog Tag" badges that were later modified to clear the beads of the 1913-later L&L metal snare drums. This caused me to wonder if this was the case with my 4x14 (3-bead) Professional and Artist Model snare drums, I seem to remember something like that...hang on, I'll be right back with the answer...Ok, I'm back and voila, my Professional and Artist Models both have the same modification! As we continue on with the quirkiness it seems that H. H. Slingerland (as was WFL I) was also a frugal company owner and did not discard faulty shells as you can clearly see where an errant hole in the butt plate area has been expertly plugged before the shell was nickel plated...ah, Monday morning at the factory. The nickel plating on the shell is in great shape so I decided to just clean the shell.
The Hardware:
The hardware is also in great shape so all that was needed was a shot of full strength Simple Green, everything brightened up nicely. The tension rods needed a little more attention though as is the plight of nickel over steel parts.
I put a Remo FiberSkyn 3 on the top and a Remo Renaissance on the snare side. Of-the-era silk wire-wound snares (that are a royal pain to string) rounded out this soft restoration.
I included a photo of this drum along with my 4x14 8 lug Professional Model and 4x14 10 lug Artist Model; a nice family portrait if you will.
I do admit that this turned out to be a bit of a treatise...but it was a fun journey and I hope that I was able to present some interesting information on an early Slingerland snare drum.
Enjoy!
Mike Curotto
