Rob start a new thread if you like. It can't hurt and you can link this thread in the new one too. I'm sure as more people see these threads they will chime in. Takes time for that right person to see and notice something. Nothing rings a bell here sorry.

You can also join DFO and post in the vintage venue there too. http://www.drumforum.org/ Lots of good people there too.

I started a thread a couple of months ago showing Louis Bellson playing in 1967 at the London Philharmonic. A similar cut is linked below, but more to the point because after he finishes with the brushes, he picks up a pair of sticks like those that are in your case.

1967 is about 4 years after the last of the B&B lug Dynasonics would have been produced. In this film he is playing a beavertail lug unit. The point is, though, he is using those kind of sticks. I'm not sure I've ever seen any indication of Buddy Rich using them.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE1SAQFSOKc"]Louie Bellson Blues 1967 - YouTube[/ame]

Thanks Glenn, sorry to be impatient. And thank you Dan for posting that video! Love to see Louie in action, and this helps to solidify my feeling that this indeed was LB's drum, and although Buddy had one stolen and it was well documented, perhaps the same thing happened to LB but didn't get talked about much. The fact that it is an undrilled WMP early paper tag DS with my father's insistence that it was Louie's drum, along with the LB-designed (and probably used!) sticks in the case, all combined answer the question for me, even if not for some of the less easily convinced. :)

Perhaps I'll post a thread on the other forum that you mentioned, Glenn, and see what turns up there.

Big thanks to all!

Good luck Rob. Let us know if you find anything further please.

The sticks with tamborine jingles were Belson's idea, shown only in the 1962 and 1964 catalogs. A scarce item, they are worth a few bucks on their own...

Closer and closer to solving this puzzle...