Sean, first off let me say Welcome, sean post some pics on the tom leg brackets, so we can see what you are describing, I use snare stands all the time for my mounted toms, on these ole drums use this head combo it will knock down the room with bottom end, use a remo white smooth either diplomat 1 ply or emperor 2 ply this is for the front head,, for the back head a smooth white remo powerstroke 3, get those heads, that will get you 90% in the ball park, good luck.Cool1

I'm not sure that the floor tom brackets even have springs in them? You may check to see if your wing nuts are stripped, they shouldn't be backing out. A little strip of felt from a fabric store wraped around the spring inside the lugs will kill that echoy sound from the toms. I mount my 13" on a snare stand and have had no problems with sound quality or positioning.

As for the bass drum heads, I gotta second what vintagemore said. I run a coated Ambassador on the front and a clear Powerstroke 3 on the batter side on my 20" Slingy and I'm just loving the sound.

Welcome!

I have the same Slingy kit (my main kit)..that I re-wrapped in black sparkle! I play a coated emad on the batter and a coated ambassador on the front ported with a t-shirt resting up against the head on the inside. I love it for everything from classic country to punk rock.

As far as the floor tom goes...check out the legs. How are the rubber guys? I use modern legs with mine. Big ol' rubber bumpers...and it sounds great most of the time. Also...maybe your legs aren't original? Maybe they are a slightly smaller diameter than they should be and thats why they are slipping?

Hope that helps!

-Ad

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the responses and head suggestions. Here are pictures of the kit before I received it and cleaned it up.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220520462833&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Adam - I believe they are the original legs. I compared them to old Slingerland catalog pictures and they look to be the same. Did you actually retrofit your floor tom with new leg brackets?

vintagemore2000 & Deadhead - Check out the pics. Unfortunately they do not use wing nuts. The leg brackets have a push button that allows the leg itself to slip through and when you release the button the spring pushes the insert back in place and puts pressure on the leg to keep it held tight. That's why I am thinking maybe the spring has lost is resilience, or maybe Adam is right and they are not the correct legs.

Sean, i thought you had the push button floor tom leg brackets. OK here's the skinny on them, they suck!!! here is a pain in the arse fix only temporarily, take the mounts off, the floor legs run through a long spring, and now that spring has become compressed, you'll need to take it out and re stretch it with your hands, then reassemble it, or just get the newer thumb screw leg brackets, this is what I've done with all of mine, this is super common on push button tom leg brackets,I still don't understand how those push button leg brackets got on there at such a late production date, push bttons are early 60;s and what about the extra tom mount on the bass drum???

Thanks vintage!

Where did you get the new leg brackets?

Also, in regards to the second tom bracket - It is not a mistake. Check this out: http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/slingerland_drumsets_1973.html

It is the Avante outfit minus two of the toms. It was sort of a cool concept. Kind of Keith Moonish.

Sorry i missed that, I got them off ebay or pm mikey777 , you'll be happy you have made the switch and these are the brackets that should be on it anyway,

I have the standard thumb screw brackets with newer legs.

If you would like, I have an extra set of 70's brackets and legs that I would be willing to get rid of. They work perfectly and are in tip top cosmetic shape.

Let me know if you need em!

Thanks,

Adam

I haven't carefully read the other posts, but if your set has push button leg mounts, someone swapped those out for the originals.

No real biggie as they used the same holes.

I've done the opposite switch many times.

The wing nut screw type leg mounts which came out in the early '60s and were used thru teh '70s, may strip out, but were still better than those push button ones.

That's why replacing them is expensive. BUT, you can usually sell the push button mounts for what it would cost to get the correct ones.

And, you can helicoil stripped wing nut ones if you need to...

For the tom mount, I prefer to use the "stubby" double tom mount for a single tom. If you really need infinite adjustments, you can get a super setomatic "block" and put your single arm in that.

As far as the bass goes...just try different heads and muffling.

Those '70s Slingerlands sound great in all types of music, from any era...