Slingerland Drums Discussion

[PHROGGE]

Wowzeers!!!!!
I Lub Dem Drums!!!!
I Know They Must Sound Warm & Wonderful....
I'm Jealous All Over Again...

[2slow]

Guys I gotta say if you have not tried vintage drums your missing out...Big Time ! This slingerland set I have sounds as good if not better than my yamaha absolute maple and cost me Way less money !! Plus the chance of seeing another 79 oakwood set is slim !

[RHD03]

2slow you did a beautiful job cleaning them up! They look great...I am jealous of your find!

[2slow]

Thanks

2slow you did a beautiful job cleaning them up! They look great...I am jealous of your find!

[RHD03]

Thanks

Do you mind telling me where you found it? I have been keeping my eye out for some vintage stuff, and actually had a chance to buy a slingerland snare I found on CL a few weeks ago. I asked the guy if he could give me the serial number or any information about it...he sounded confused as to why I was asking, and then never called me back. Oh well

[Russ]

in the words of ashton kutcher.. DUDE! SWEET!

[Gretschhead]

I'm starting on a new slingerland restoration project.I picked up a red sparkle 22" kick and 13" tom in a big lot of stuff I got on CL for $50. They need some work, a good scrub, and some parts, but otherwise nice.

I priced out the parts I needed and found that they would be a decent chunk of change from ebay or a vintage dealer. Luckily I found a guy on CL selling a 6pc set with all concert toms in chrom-o finish, very undesireable kit, so I got a nice deal on it. I stripped all the parts off and I now have everything I need. I also found a matching 16" floor tom shell on ebay, perfect because I have tons of extra lugs and parts now.

The bass drum is a Chicago era badge from the late 50s, both toms are Niles era badges from the 60s. Should turn out to be a sweet 3pc. I'm thinking of pulling the chrome off of the 8" and 10" concert tom and refinishing them natural as a little add on aux tom set. I'll post some pics as the restoration progresses.

[Gretschhead]

[velvety]

Newbie here, realized I should have probably posted in this thread, and not started a new. Can anyone help? I can't seem to find much about these anywhere, outside the 1980 catalogue photo:

http://www.drumchat.com/showthread.p....html?p=238891
It's the Spirit 1000, guessing 80-81. My neighbor is asking 250, including all hardware. Worth it. Can't say I really need more drums, but you know. The drums are mint btw. Just like to know more about them, thanks.

[Gretschhead]

I picked up this snare on ebay this weekend. Its a '62 Slingerland Artist model single ply maple shell in red sparkle pearl to match my current restoration project. I haven't gotten it yet, but the seller said it was in excellent shape and all original. I'll post some more pics when it gets here, I should have the rest of the kit mostly done by then.

[Gretschhead]

Finally the Slingerland kit is finished, stay tuned for pics and details in the morning !

[Gretschhead]

Alrighty, so the story of the Slingerland... As I mentioned above I came across a couple of old Slingerland drums in a big pile of stuff I bought on CL for $50. A 22" kick and 13" rack were my starting point. After stripping everything down I came to the conclusion that the 22" kick was in too rough of shape to attempt a restore. The re-rings had completely seperated from the shell and the bearing edges were chewed up and split everywhere. Not to mention the spurs had been drilled out for a different bracket and the wrap was completely toast as you can see in the pics above. So the 22" was scrapped while I worked on the rest of the kit.

I found a 16" floor tom shell with a nice tight wrap on ebay. Using hardware from a 70s chrome over wood kit I bought for parts, I was able to complete the floor tom and replace the missing parts on the 13".

Next came the snare, it sort of just fell in my lap. I had been experimenting with a few different high end snares, Yammy Dave Weckl, Fibes, and a Gretsch USA Custom. None of them were really what I was looking for, so I attempted to find a trade for a COB Slingerland or an old Radio King, the trade never came around. So I decided to sell the current snare, the Gretsch, and see what I could find. It sold within an hour of posting on ebay and I had a pretty good chunk of change to put into a new snare. The very next day there was a '62 Artist model Slingerland with the coveted 1ply maple shell in original red sparkle wrap posted up on the bay. I didn't even hesitate, I paid the buy it now, which wasn't cheap, but I couldn't be happier with the snare.

So now I had to decide what to do for a kick. I already had all of the hardware, so my next thought was buy a new shell. I found a nice 20" Slingy shell from the 60s that had been stripped down and ready to wrap. Here's where I hit another snag. I ordered a swatch of Red Glass and Red Sparkle from Precision Drum to see which one would match. Well neither of them came close to being a good match. I found out that Slingerland's red sparkle from this era was a reversable wrap with red spkl on one side and blue spkl on the other. This caused the gaps in the flakes to be much darker on the red side. I didn't want to drop $100+ on a wrap that wasn't going to match, so the search for a new BD shell was on. A really nice 22" popped up on ebay, but I was outbid in the final seconds of the auction. I searched ebay and craigslist daily for 2 months with very little luck. Then finally a complete 20" red sparkle BD popped up for sale on the Seattle CL. After a few email exchanges I managed to persuade the seller to ship it down to me in Texas. It arrived yesterday and is dang near pristine! Its a virgin kick, which is rare and totally awesome, has excellent wrap w/both inlays, shiny chrome, all original parts, even original heads were included.

So in the end the Red Sparkle Pearl Slingys are now complete and sound totally amazing! I'm left over with tons and tons of Slingerland parts that I didn't get to use, maybe another Slingy project in the future?

[late8]

Great read! Love the restoration!

[2slow]

Love the slingerlands and the red sparkle !! my set sounds better everytime i play it !! congrats on a good job and a great reward for all the effort !!

[Gretschhead]

2slow, I know what you mean, every time I play the Slingys I'm just blown away by the sound. When I first started this project I knew very little about Slingerland and had very limited experience playing them. I did at one time own a late 60s 3ply snare that I absolutley loved, it was stripped and modded, but a real player. Other than that I had never played another slingerland drum. So far my first hand experience of the Slingerland sound has made me a huge fan. They have such a warm and full bodied sound with a beautiful tone and perfect sustain with no need for muffling.

I've always been a huge fan of vintage drums, I love being able to dive into the history and learn about the drums and how they were making them back in the day. Over the past few months I have learned an enormous amount about Slingerland. I've done vintage restorations on Gretsch and Ludwig before in the past and learned a great deal about them when I did. I'd really like to delv into the Rogers world next, but we'll save that for a later time. For now I'm just going to enjoy the heck out of the Slingys!

[Johnnyringo]

Anyone know anything about the Slingerland Buddy Rich reissue kit that came out a few years ago? Not to be mistaken with the Buddy Rich drum company drums. These have Slingerland logos and are a true white marine pearl. I've heard they were actually made in the Grestch plant here in America and they used jasper shells. I believe H&H music were selling them for like $3,000 before they went under. I have a chance to get one for $1,500, but I would have to trade in my Ayotte kit.

The kit has a 9x13,16v16,16x16,14x24, it has modern legs and two cymbal arms on the kick. It's one special looking kit, down to the Slingerland and BR logo.

[Gretschhead]

Anyone know anything about the Slingerland Buddy Rich reissue kit that came out a few years ago? Not to be mistaken with the Buddy Rich drum company drums. These have Slingerland logos and are a true white marine pearl. I've heard they were actually made in the Grestch plant here in America and they used jasper shells. I believe H&H music were selling them for like $3,000 before they went under. I have a chance to get one for $1,500, but I would have to trade in my Ayotte kit.

The kit has a 9x13,16v16,16x16,14x24, it has modern legs and two cymbal arms on the kick. It's one special looking kit, down to the Slingerland and BR logo.

Johnny, do you know the year of production? If they were made within the last decade and a half they are Gibson era, not Gretsch. Gretsch sold the company in the early-mid 90s. Where does the badge say they were made? The newer slingys are very nice drums, and quite difficult to get ahold of. They use keller maple shells and no longer make their own. You can bet that the Buddy Rich series kit was very pricey and the very top notch of what they were producing at that particular time. I'd say $1500 is probably reasonable. Whether or not they are worth selling the Ayottes for, I couldn't tell you. Post some pics of the badges if you can, and I can help you date them better.

[shoedaddy]

That's a great-looking resto, GH!

[McLachlan]

my dad used to have a Slingerland. it's a shame they've become so uncommon now (at least in the UK), I could do with a Rolling Thunder with a 26"..

[Russ]

very nice job on the restoration gretschhead!

[Gretschhead]

Thanks for the comments shoedaddy and russ . I've recently found an original slingerland kick pedal and hi-hat stand to match. I was able to trade another one of our members, Cassidy, for a real nice crash cymbal, we both wound up happy about the trade. I'll post some pics of the kit with the new pedals at work on Monday.

[Option]

Just fell into these Slingerlands earler this week, I have always wanted some vintage preferably some Rogers or Slingerlands then this happened... Sorry for the picture quality, I can take some better ones if you guys want to see them, I took these on my Iphone, mainly just wanted to get the color of the shells.

So here is all I know about them...
The guy told me there 1969s but from doing a little research on line with the serial number they seem like they can be anywere from 69-75.
There is 5 pieces (I didn't get them all in the pics)
14 x 5 snare
12 x 7 tom
13 x 8 tom
16 x 15 floor tom
22 x 14 bass
They were originally a red wrap until he had them professionally redone at a drum shop in Ohio and they were stripped, sanded and stained the orange sunburst color you see in the pics. He used a rack and hated the Slingerland tom mounts so those were filled and had Pearl style mounts put on which is the only thing not original.
The snare I cant seem to get the buzz out of the wires, I have never had a metal snare or one with a dampener so I dont have much experience tuning these. I really liked how it sounded over my wood Gretsch snare when I first got it but then I changed the heads because his were in bad shape and I cant get it to sound like I want it. I also believe the throw might not be original either, seems like it might have been changed to a later model or something, I will have to take some pics of that too.
Also they all came with soft cases except the snare.
Right now I dont have heads for the bass or one of the rack toms. I am currently using the floor tom (love the thunderous sound!) and the snare (If i can get a good tune on it) I want to hear the hole thing but I cant use the toms without a rack which kinda sucks.
If anyone has any insight on some good bass drum head combos for these or any tips on tuning this snare let me know.
I still cant believe I bought these but I got a good deal (I think? hah) and I think there gonna sound great once I get them in playable condition. Sorry for the long post I am just excited and dont know too much about these but thought they were very cool sizes and It would be one of those things I would kick my self in the *** forever If i didn't buy them.
Let me know what you think and I will try to get some better pics...

[pastor_bob]

Very nice looking drums Option! The finish reminds me of my Gretsch Catalina Maple kit, so I am sure they looks great. In thinking about the snare buzz, I was wondering if the snare wires might have gone on accidently upside down, or if they might be slightly misaligned. I was thinking about that since you had changed the heads.

There is a snare at my local music store that has the same badge, but with a lower serial number (although from what I have learned about Slingerland's process for putting on the badges, they did not number things sequentially). The snare is probably a similar age to your set, and the snare sounds very good. It is all I can do to resist buying it right now (it is not a particularly good bargain).

[Option]

I did some work on the snare today, took it too a local drum shop and bought some pure sound blasters. Wow what a difference tuned it up a little more with the new pure sounds and man does this thing sing! I cant wait to get the hole kit going. I just have no idea what I want to do for heads on the bass. I want it to retain that sweet "vintage" sound with it but I have to buy a rack first...damn.

Old kit with modern hardware, what a twist ahaha

[Gretschhead]

Sweet kit Option, congrats on the new purchase! Check out Aquarian American Vintage heads, also Remo Fiberskyns sound great on old Slingys, and you can never go wrong with Remo Ambassadors.