Just sent a bunch of pics to hawghunter. Thanks for all the offers to help. You guys are great!

Pics are small. Nice looking drum man! I know that the lever on the strainer looks like the real deal. Try to find one of those. More pics coming.

More pics........................

I would like to see a good pic of the grommet from the inside.

It is real you didn't get skunked :) the trans badge era drums would have WFL parts on it as it followed the Wfl badge.

What does the wrap look like under the lugs? Is the wrap faded ?

I've seen a lot of variation where the wrap follows the plys, but I have to say that pic looks way too clean & crisp to my eyes to be original. Only an opinion; hope to be wrong - chris

There is some fade of the wrap. It's a little darker under the lugs but is still a dark gray or pewter. I don't see that color in either the on line catalogs or the Ludwig book. The wrap does go into the plys like it's supposed to. The re-rings are shorter than the other Ludwig drums I have. There is a faint date stamp inside the shell, June 23 1960, but the white paint looks almost new. The hardware looks all original and even has some pitting. The drum seems to be real good quality and looks really good. I really like the drum and plan to keep it but would just feel better if I knew for sure that it is real. Thanks for all the comments and would appreciate any all additional thoughts you guys may have.[

Gerald - it is highly possible that everything is perfectly fine. The paint looking too good could mean that the drum was not used much, heads were rarely removed, etc. A kit w/ the exact same date stamps inside can have variation in paint application. People painted these, not robots. Anyway, hope you have a pleasant surprise w/ an all original very sweet looking snare - c

looking real to me so far...

mike