Hey Mark!... and I couldn't resist!

Your points are all valid! .. especially .. the extended butt was NOT ever part of a Slingerland 4X14 BR, plus... the throw was ALWAYS the Zoomatic, not the Rapid. The Zoomatic is of course present on this drum, but the butt is plain WRONG. Tone controls were supplied on these here and there. Regarding hoops:

StickChoppers were how Buddy played his, but StickSavers were available. As a matter of fact, StickChoppers had to be requested as Slingerland started supplying this drum with Savers pretty early on. I have BOTH model Slingerland 4x14 Buddy Rich's: WMP and COW. Both have StickChoppers/factory, no tone controls, and both of them are EARLY production as they have the black/gold Slingerland badge which just preceded the black/silver. ( LATE 1969, early 1970 ) I have to agree... something about this drum just "looks" a little funky.

Tommyp

Hey Tommy!

It's been a while! I was actually hoping you would see my post and comment on it. Yes, it does seem a bit "funky" to me as well. The drum may, in fact, be legitimate, but being offered in the early 80's doesn't make sense to me. If you were to remove the lugs from any of your BR snare drums, wouldn't the holes of the side-by-side lugs be directly across from each other and not up/down, as in the eBay drum?

As a side note, I recently removed all the hardware from a Slingerland 10x14 marching drum, so I could build a BR clone. I've obtained a nice 4x14 Keller shell, complete with reinforcement hoops. I took the Zoomatic to a friend of mine who owns a machine shop and he did an excellent job of grinding the back portion of the Zoomatic to look like the style Slingerland used so the top hoop won't interfere with it. My only dilemma? What color to wrap it in! Either WMP, Blue-White MP or chrome. While chrome metal no longer exists, the newer chromed vinyl looks pretty good. Any suggestions on color? I really don't plan to use the drum. Just a cool project to keep me busy!

Mark

If it were my drum project, I would wrap it in a color to match one of my other drum sets such as Black Diamond or one of the sparkles. I also wouldn't rule out solid black. If I wanted the drum to be one of the WMP variants, I'd wrap it to match my WMP drum set......If I had one. If it's a stand-alone extra snare for you, why not just pick your personal favorite wrap?

Hey Mark!...

... and you are absolutely correct with regard to the lug placement on the Slingerland 4X14 Buddy Rich! Those lugs should be "side by each" as the French Canadian's say. ( I love that! ) I'll attach a pic of my LATE 1969/1970 Slingerland 4X14 Buddy Rich in COW. The lug placement is unmistakable.. and .. my WMP model is exactly the same. You would think that whomever built the drum on eBay might have paid a little closer attention to the lug placement/spacing. Course as you have noted, there are even MORE things wrong with that drum, making it most certainly not a Slingerland build. NEAT on your latest project! I know exactly what you had your buddy do... remove the "dummy tab" ! Leedybdp has some excellent suggestions on the wrap.. and .. should you go for the "COW look", that chrome/plastic wrap does indeed look GENUINE! I have heard that one has to be careful with it as I guess it scratches very easily. I don't think that would at all be a problem under your care however!

Tommyp

Tommyp and leedybdp! Thanks for the input with the wrap choices. I do have a 1967 Slingerland kit in Sparkling Silver Pearl, which I had posted on this forum. I was going to wrap the 4x14 to match, but feel that I might be selling the Slingerland's before the year is out. Just too many kits right now! With that in mind, I thought I'd build a tribute drum. Buddy seemed to favor his 4x14 as a COW. I have a small sample of the chrome finish and it does look like it could pass for actual metal! The project is still on the back burner, so I can always change my mind as to color!

Here's some information I just received from the seller of this drum...

"Wow...over 45 emails on just one drum shell. This must be the most wanted drum shell in the history of ebay. I picked it up back in the 90's as part of a slingerland marine pearl drumset from the 70's. I was told that the he bought the snare in 1979, it was a perfect match to the set. The bass drum and toms were a much thicker 5 ply but the marine pearl on the snare was a perfect match.

It's funny that you said "Not only are the double lugs spaced too far apart, but they are also offset up/down incorrectly. After buying the set with the snare, I bought a "new" slingerland brass model with the same lug spacing and offset up and down like this shell has. Hope the info helps..."

So, maybe this is original?

You guys are making an awfully big deal over a drum SHELL that's only up to $66 at the moment. You do realize that you don't get any hardware whatsoever with this right? Also, if it is a Gretsch-era snare shell, what's to say they didn't get the hardware/holes right in the first place? They knew about drilling holes for Gretsch all those years, not Slingerland.....and as far as the "incorrect butt....maybe they were using up old stock?

I say at this point, its a good deal, genuine Buddy or not......

Mark!...

Goes without saying that my "area" is the snare drums/sets/hardware and endorsements of Buddy Rich from 1949 to his passing in 1987, with a fine focus on the years between 1950 to 1982. Any of the model snares he played during this period I have researched pretty thoroughly, and the Slingerland 4X14 is certainly one of them. Only reason I even mention that is... I'm sure there are some MAJOR Slingerland guys that might have even more input on this drum, but that said:

The Slingerland 4X14 Buddy Rich was superceded by the Slingerland BR/TDR which was first cataloged in 1976, although the BR/TDR was actually available LONG before that. My BR/TDR is an EARLY model, 1974... yet it wasn't even cataloged as such yet, if memory serves. Anyway... the 4X14 BR model disappeared from the Slingerland catalog for a couple years inbetween it seems. Interestingly, it was also during those years that Buddy was playing the Fibes SFT690/COF... again! ... but I digress. Anyway...

I'm thinking that the eBay drum "may be" from the HSS Slingerland era, and that is based on the Zoomatic style/knob, the shell itself, and especially the placement of those lugs. ALL the 4X14 BR model snares I have ever seen PRIOR to the imported HSS line had the lugs almost perfectly spaced horizontally and vertically. It's just hard to believe that this drum is from approx. 1980 as Slingerland/proper, wasn't even building them anymore at that time. I don't know... I think that snare may be a "clone" of some kind. There are too many things that are just a little "off" on it, you know? However!...

Doesn't mean it's not a nice playing/sounding drum, rather... I don't think it's GENUINE Slingerland manufacture. Regardless, the seller's response to your inquiry was nice and without any attitude. Now THAT, was nice to see!

Tommyp

... "you guys are making an awfully big deal over a drum SHELL"... etc. Actually, no LD... not making a big deal over it, more like fodder for a fine DISCUSSION into the what/where/how. These are the type of things that make one want to dig and research a bit. I don't think anyone here is actually interested in the purchase of this item... more the discussion about how it might have come to be... and is it "possibly" genuine, which again... I don't think it is.

Tommyp