I just picked up this Rogers Tower kit in a silver glass glitter finish and it came with a 6 lug Rogers gold glass glitter snare. The tom, kick and snare are Cleveland and the floor tom is Dayton. I'm not too familiar with the Tower series, although I do know they had the same shell construction, but was the 16 floor tom with the beavertail lugs common with these kits?
In any case, I absolutely love Rogers silver glass glitter, they really look cool under stage lights.
That kit is called....
"Comet" outfit, in the 1964 catalog. Bass drum, ride tom, Luxor Snare drum. 336.00. A Holiday Floor tom could be added for an additional 90-100 depending on it being a 14 or 16. A 14x14 Tower could be had for 80.00 in choice of pearl. Often the Holiday Floor tom was added to these kits because it might already be in the music store. And a 4 piece could be had for about a hundred bucks cheaper than a 4 piece Holiday Swingtime.
I don't think gold glass is the color of your snare. I think it is silver faded to golden ginger-ale. Pulling the heads or a lug will tell the tale on that. The drums themselves, look amazingly fresh. If that finish has a slightly orange peal feel and look to it, they are original. If it is baby butt smooth.... they are refinished.
When you say refinished, do you mean a re-wrap? The kit is actually still at the drum shop, I'm going to pick them up later this week, but I'll definitely check out the wrap a bit closer, I don't want a re-wrap, thanks.
Rewrap.
Glitter finishes of that era have an orange peal texture to their surface. Any glitter finish Rogers drum of that era will have that.
I think your snare is original. I have a silver glitter Tower snare. It has ginger-aled just like yours. If you rub the wrap lightly with your fingertips you can feel the real small bumps in the wrap. A re-wrap will feel perfectly smooth. Gerald.
Looks great...
But Plough is right...take the hoops off...look underneath ...even remove a lug to see if there's a big difference in the wrap...
Bop iT / Til U Drop iT.If the finish is original, the seams will always be under the centerline of a lug. Compare location of seams with your blue sparkle set to know if they are correct. There will be two on the bass drum and those will be located at lugs second from the bottom. For the tom, it should be at the lug behind the swivo mount. For the 16, at the rear of the drum out of the audience's view. The lower piece of wrap will pass under the upper piece. The grommet at the vent holes must be chrome. If it is brushed nickel, that is not correct and more than likely the result of a rewrap. Look carefully at the bearing edges. A re-wrap is often not as tight at the top or cut as cleanly. Check the nails at the Rogers script to see if they have been tampered with. They should be small, COB not steel and still embedded in one dent in the inner shell from a hit with a hammer to bend them over. Those nails often give away a re-wrap.
"The lower piece of wrap will pass under the upper piece."
Sorry for misplacing that statement. It refers to the bass drum.
Rogers and Slingerland never made finishes called "glitter" or "glass glitter." Why do you all keep calling them that???
The devil is always in the details.
Rogers called all of these finishes "pearl"
Sparkling Blue Pearl
Sparkling Silver Pearl
Wine Red Ripple Pearl
ETC>
The sparkles were a glass glitter during this era. They did have tiny bits of glass in the finish. Later sparkle finishes were made differently. to quote...
Bruce Longroll Felter
All of Rogers Sparkles were made with glass shards untill the early 1970s when they discontinued sparkles. "Sparkle" is what they called it in the catalogs. They then offered Silver Sparkle, but it was the non-glass aluminum foil type (foil bits used). The first sparkles were smooth and glossy and prone to fading. Around 1963-64 there was a change in the sparkle and the surface was not so smooth but sort of textured, this newer sparkle was less prone to fading. Bruce
Hard to capture......
orange peel
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