I have looked at the VDG site but haven't found definitative answers to my questions so I thought asking might be quicker!

According to Rob Cook's publication, "The Slingerland Book", the company's "Duet Outfit 14N" was offered from 1960 - 1976. It featured a 5x14 snare, two 8x12 racks toms mounted on a floor stand, a 16x16 floor tom, and two 14x20 bass drums. In 1970, the hardware was improved and the rack toms were changed to one 8x12 and one 9x13. The bass drum size was changed from 14x20 to 14x22 in 1976.

Thanks OldSchool! It has a single 20" and the toms are 12 & 13.

Here's a pic of the badge and one t-rod & claw.

Hi Jeff!

To answer your questions, here's what I can say. No, Slingerland never installed dual mufflers as standard. Are you talking one muffler on each head? If so, the lower muffler was probably installed by the owner or other drum shop. As to it being a Duet, the fact that there is a missing bass drum no longer makes it a Duet, does it?!!

As an example, attached is a picture of a 1967 Slingerland kit I purchased some years back and still have. It was originally a Duet, but the seller sold the other bass drum well before offering the rest of the drums for sale. The 8x12 rack tom you see with the kit was offered separately as a shell only, with no hardware. It was the left-hand tom. I purchased the bass, floor tom and right-hand tom together and had to get the matching snare drum and left-hand tom shell separately. Moved over all the hardware to the left-hand tom. Since there was no second bass drum, it really is no longer a Duet, so I chose to install a Maxwell rail mount. Not only that, but finding an original Slingerland double tom stand, with ratchet mount, would be next to impossible! So, I use the kit as you see it and never worried that it was a Duet. Hope all this info helps!

-Mark

Thanks for the reply idrum! I think it's weird that all 3 toms have two mufflers.

It's missing the bottom hoop and lugs on the 12 and the outer bass head, hoop and t-rods& claws.

It does have the stand for the 12&13 toms though. It has most of the stands, bass pedal, snare stand and an 8 lug snare w a matching badge and close serial#.

I believe you could order dual mufflers so they might be factory. I wouldn't sweat that it's no longer a complete "Duet" as those were just made up names for various cataloged configurations. The drums were all the same no matter what set they may have come with. Whether or not it's a complete Duet would only matter to a collector wanting to duplicate a catalog set but has no bearing whatsoever on a set that is intended to be played. It's even possible someone ordered it that way in the first place. Perhaps they wanted the toms on a stand but didn't want a second bass drum. It was easy to get your dealer to do those sorts of things back then and the drum companies were happy to accommodate such requests. Probably was originally a Duet but there's no way of really knowing for sure short of having the original paperwork.

'71 seems appropriate given that badge, serial number and clear interior. A plus if all the serials are relatively close.