Well, here it is.

1966/67 Roger Blue Sparkle Tower snare S/N 12202 (my Tower bass drum it 12163). It's very possible my Comet kit with Luxor snare was made by the same people on the same day as this snare.

This thing looks like it was placed in a case and stuck in the closet for 48 years. The original batter head has a couple small scratches and there are very few stick marks. The chrome is pit free and the wrap is scratch free and very bright. The tension rods don't look original, because they are not the typical straight square headed type. Was this type of t-rod used by Rogers? The snare wires do not have the Rogers logo either, but they look like the Rogers style.

-Tim

More pictures ...

Looks like it was made yesterday-fantastic snare and congrats on securing it.

Wayne

Hi Tim,

A beautiful Tower snare drum! I have the same drum, same color, and the SN is 12853. All original tension rods on my drum, which are the square-head variety. I'm not exactly sure when Rogers switched to the tension rods with the little "blips", but an educated guess would be around 1966.

-Mark

Thanks, Mark.

Based on serial numbers, my drum is 651 earlier than yours. I wonder if there were a couple assembly lines running, one builder ran out of the square-head tension rods and received the newer style tension rods. Maybe the tension rod bin was almost empty and they dumped some new rods on top of the old rods. Maybe the same thing happened with the tags.

Who knows?

-Tim

With hesitation, I've removed the original Rogers batter head and put it in a safe spot. Keeping the original reso head and wires for now.

I actually had a very clean 60's Remo Sound Master batter head stored away. I think it's the same thickness as the Rogers head (Diplomat), so it's now on the Tower. It's a really thin head that has a lot of sensitivity and just enough ring. Still playing with the tuning and comparing it to my Luxor. It's something how just two lugs can make a difference in sound.

-Tim