Slingerland Radio King Chrome Snare (Gene Krupa))

[thepilgrimsdream]

I picked up one of these today, it was dirt cheap, its kinda dirty, slight bit of rust around the lugs here and there, nothing bad.

Threw a new ambassador hazy on the snare side. Shell on the bottom didnt fit quite perfect. Bent or Pitting? I'm new to this stuff.

The batter head is a slightly used ambassador i threw on, fit perfectly mounted.

I badly need to replace the snares.


It sounds nice when tapped on, but with a stick it sounds pretty bright and has too much sustain, even when a constant pitch unless muted, needs a little depth and warmth to blend with my ludwig epic x over jazzette. Sounds better tuned high and poppy, cant get it to tune well low.

Do I need a new batter head? Will the snare help the tone? Does the slightly bent bottom hurt the tone?

[thepilgrimsdream]

[Pearl MCX Man]

I have an old Sligny too. Seeing your pics I think the head does need some changing for sure. I use an Aquarian Z100 textured head on my Slingy over Hazy 300 snare side. These snares need to be tuned tight top and bottom to get the real sound out of them. Do you have an internal muffler which is adjustable with a knob on the outside of the drum. If you do that will help kill some of the overtones. Other than that the snare is a good one with a little twitting and cleaning it will maie a great alll around snare. I use my Slingy more than the other 2 snare that I have. Good find and enjoy the vintage sound of Slingerland.

[slinky]

it probably sounds pretty good with brushes though

[MattDrums]

14x5 Radio King, chrome over brass shell. Nice drum.

If by "bent" on the bottom, you are referring to the crimping in resonant side bearing edge, those are your snare beds, and perfectly normal. If you're not referring to the beds, then it's likely the shell is somewhat out of round. Those brass shells are fairly soft and maleable, so it's likely that the drum is slightly out of round. Assuming it tunes up, you should be fine. If it's something you want fixed, there are a number of qualified shops that can fix it for you.

FWIW - Gene Krupa models have a Zoomatic strainer. Yours is a standard Radio King.

[thepilgrimsdream]

Awesome, thanks for the info guys, I'm gonna clean it, try a Evans genera hd and a new ambassador on it, it has the mute inside, which is cool, but it makes it a little too unresponsive for my liking, but works for some stuff. The reso head doesn't quite seat right, I had to sorta squeeze in on there a tad, the batter head seated perfect

[late8]

Nice find!