A short time ago I picked up some Slingerland shells (22/13/16) in original White Marine Pearl wrap at a more than reasonable price. There were absolutely no extra holes in any of the shells and all came with their original lugs. The bass drum had its original rail consolette as well as two cymbal L-arm mounts ala the configuration Buddy Rich & Gene Krupa favored. The original owner had Rogers' BD spur mounts installed in lieu of Slingerlands. I removed the mounts to see if there were any extra holes hidden beneath them but there weren't any. The bass drum and rack tom shells are date stamped May and June 1958 respectively. The floor tom is slightly newer but matches the other two shells quite well.

I also purchased one original BD hoop with the shells with the original WMP

in-lay and the original COB rims for the toms. The original FT legs were also included in the sale.

When I get this "project" completed the kit will have both original BD hoops with matching WMP in-lays as well as the "era-correct" BD t-rods. For the time being, however, I installed a pair of Slingerland maple BD hoops that I had with Green Glass Glitter in-lays and some rods from one of my other Slingy bass drums. I slapped on the '57 Chevy BD head since it was pretty close to the year the drum was actually manufactured ('58).

Just thought I'd share some pics of what I've done thus far. I apologize for the lousy pics. At times my camera produces pics with a yellowish/pinkish hue or ones that are simply too bright. You'll notice that once you have a look.

I'm a little concerned whether I could play this kit out using the original rail consolette. It doesn't seem too sturdy to me although the music I play is mainly blues, country and some "soft" rock. Any advice in that regard would be greatly appreciated.

BTW........The snare you see in one of the pics is a 6 1/2 x 14 Supra that I got free with a kit I purchased a few months ago.

Thanks for your time!