So, I have this (black and silver Niles badge) Festival snare and I finally took it out and put it on my kit. Wow, has to be cleaned! So, just for haha's, I took off the top hoop to clean/polish it and it came up beautiful, nearly perfect chrome.

Decided while in the garage, I'd see if a magnet stuck to it and, yes, it did. So, since it seems that the top hoop is COS, I decided to see about the shell and other hoop. Now, here's my question....the serial number is 86xxx which I think dates it either somewhere early 1970 or around early 1972, is that correct. Based on what I've read about shell material, I though early 70's shells were COB. But, when I tried the magnet on the shell, it stuck..indicating it is COS. This is an original Festival, way dirty and stored for years...factory original, badge never changed.

Interestingly, I checked out the scans of Slingerland catalogs (love the stuff in this site!) and for 1971, they specify COB shell. In the 1973 catalog, they just say "Chrome shell". So do I assume that by 1973, they had switched out of the brass shell and moved to steel? The site doesn't have the '72 catalog and I don't have in my collection either. Not sure what they specified in that catalog.

Am I just off in my dating of the shell? If it is COS, is it generally worth less than a similar COB?

All comments welcome.

Thanks!