No one? Would more info be of any help? Niles badge, 1980 silver wrap, magnum hardware has four legs, 20" dia x 18", five ply with outer mahogony.

Hell, I have a hard enough time tuning my 18" floor tom. I couldn't imagine trying on a 20"!

According to Dr. CJW- Slingerland used either an outer ply of mahogany OR maple interchangeably on the 5 ply shells from 1972-1986.

Perusing through the 1980 Slingerland catalog on this site- I see no Magnum series drum sets with 18x20 floor toms.

However- the 18x20 was used on several late 70's 5 ply sets.

If I had to guess one of the following scenarios happened to as why the set has an 18x20 floor.

1.The original owner wanted one of the sets listed in the 79' catalog, and the shop just ordered 1980 drums in that configuration. When the order came in at Slingerland, they just grabbed the first 5 ply 18x20 off the shelf, drilled it for Magnum hardware and added it to the set.

2. The original owner wanted an 18x20 in addition to the floor tom included in the Magnum set. When the order came in at Slingerland, they just grabbed the first 5 ply 18x20 off the shelf, drilled it for Magnum hardware and added it to the set.

3. The original owner decided six months after buying the set, he wanted an 18x20. When the order came in at Slingerland, they just grabbed the first 5 ply 18x20 off the shelf, drilled it for Magnum hardware and shipped it to the store.

4. The original owner saw an 18x20 in the same finish as his new set sitting on the showroom floor and purchased that in addition to his new set.

The attention to "plies" that we have today was just not there in the early 80's, and to Slingerland Maple and Mahogany were interchangeable.

The same thing was going on at the other drum companies. There are mid 70's badged 18x20 Ludwig toms that are obviously from the WFL era- they never threw anything away. Also look at Gretsch- they were shipping mixtures of three ply and six ply drums in the late 50's- early 60's until the stock on three ply drums was exhausted.

el,

Thanks for the info. Prior to posting I also reviewed info on site, came up wanting. The drum is 20" X 18", ie 20" diameter by 18" deep. I did not find one listed in the catalogs. Hoping the more knowledgable Slingy gurus would shed some light. My gut tells me this may have come with original kit, however based on ply config may have been a converted bass drum shell and special ordered. Niles badge #561512. Was looking for confirmation.

What is tough when doing research is that 18x20 (or 20x18 as you call it) was a "standard" floor tom size from the 1950's to the 1980's for Ludwig and Slingerland, but was usually listed in the "tom-tom" section in the catalogs, which are not usually scanned in on the web- so people tend to think most of the time that they were "custom ordered" drums.

Slingerland even offered single headed 18x20 floor toms in the 70's- not 100% sure if Ludwig did.

Some of the 70's Slingerland sets (the "Jack Rock" and the "Double Time" are two examples) are the only ones so far that I have noticed, that came with 18x20 floor toms.

Thanks again for info. Appreciate it.

The shell ply variance could be for a number of reasons, not to mention that it is an odd shell size and probably sitting on the shelf waiting for that drummer that wanted a 20"

They used what they had.

David

[COLOR="Navy"]Actually 18x20 (depth listed first in those days) was a standard Magnum floor tom size. And we can verify this in the 1983 catalog, page 35.

Hello drt1010... Your drum is more likely from the 1983 - 1984 period. You indicate 5-ply with mahogany exterior, wrapped - that, without other details, would describe a normal Magnum tom, bass or snare drum. How does your shell differ from the standard 5-ply thin-thick-thin-thick-thin lay-up?[/COLOR]

i have a magnum set from 1984 original owner, xm10 set ordered it with a 16x16 and a 18x20 instead of the 16x18 it came with, also have a solid shell (radio king) 7x14 snare with 12 lugs great sounding drums.