Hey all,
I inherited a set of vintage slingerland drums from my grandfather at a young age, and after putting them in a closet for many years I dug them out on a request from a friend who knows some about vintage drums.
As far as I know they are 1940 or 1941 Slingerland Radio King drums in white marine pearl wrap. They have the super lugs on the toms and snare with part number #549 separate tension lugs on the BD. The shells seem to be a 3- ply mahogany-poplar-mahogany with maple reinforcement rings on the toms and BD with a solid maple shell with maple reinforcement rings on the snare. The snare strainer seems to be a "super strainer" (clamshell) though I believe it is missing the throwoff arm (I have heard they would break often). The badge is the second tan and brass (Chicago). The tom is mounted by clamp onto the bass drum hoop. Each drum has the red felt interior mufflers. The only writing on the shells is 2 signatures, the number "3", and 4 digits "1287" on the inside of the mounted tom.
I also have fibre cases for the toms and bass drum with a large box case that holds the hardware and snare drum.
The heads seem to be the originals with a "radio king" stamp on them, and the resonant head on the mounted tom has a stamp from the store where the drums were bought(?).
I also have most of the hardware for the kit including: Bass drum pedal, bass drum external muffler, Hi-Hat stand, Throne, Floor tom stand, and a single bass drum hoop mounted cymbal stand. There was also another piece of hardware pictured away from the kit that I am not sure exactly what it was used for.
The Drum sizes are:
BD: 26x14
Snare: 14x7
Rack Tom: 13x9.5
Floor tom: 16x14
I am a professional drummer living in the Midwest and I thought this might be a great kit to take to recording sessions and maybe a few gigs to get that vintage sound, so I would be interested in getting the drums back into playing shape. This would probably include new heads (some of the heads are torn or broken), new lugs (Bass drum and snare have several broken lugs and the floor tom has one broken lug), and new snare wires/throwoff (several wires are broken and it would be nice to have a throwoff on the drum so you don't have to manually tighten and loosen the snares). I'm not really worried about the kit looking great, I would rather just have something that sounds awesome.
So my questions for the community is if anyone has some additional info on what this kit might be, if I could find someone who carries lugs that would work for these drums, what heads/ snare wires would you recommend, and if anyone has any ideas on that random piece or hardware?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Pictures are attached.