Your theory seems correct to me. The light colored parts of the wrap are semi-transparent, and allow some of the wood color to affect the color(s) of the outer side of the wrap. Rogers would sometimes paint the shells under the wrap to get more consistency in color for random patterns such as this wrap. Ya gotta remember, however, that the drums are being listed by someone in the land of hyperbole (SoCal).

From what I have heard the Agate wraps were somewhat translucent,so a Mahog ply underneath could give it a red hue.From the pics I would agree with your assumption.

I completely agree with the post so far. The translucent effect also came through beautifully with Ludwig's early oyster finishes. The beautiful mahogany showing through those clear sections of the oyster finishes gave it character. The same is also true for Slingerland's Pink Oyster finish.

As to the "hyperbole" comment, hey, I'm SoCal, too, but NEVER use hyperbole in any of my descriptions!!!

Agate wraps are not translucent. They would not allow wood to show through. Not sure what's going on with the subject wrap (nor will I speculate at this time ... maybe later), but I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence that it is not wood showing through an agate wrap.

Does the link in my first post provide you with enough detail to see if this finish is legitimate?

Yes, I completely concur that the Agate finishes would not be translucent. If this is truly an uncatalogued wrap, it may be the only one. I would certainly like to know more!

I believe it to be Grey Agate Pearl. I have the same color kit. And there is another one on ebay now I think at $510. Mine has faded to a more chocolate color. They will pick up colors when photographed.

They stopped this color in 69 I believe. I had been looking for this color wrap for years and found one last year. Now 2 show up in a week!!

Cheers,Ed

Link to better pic of the snare,

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18492

Another vote for Grey Agate Pearl. The drums are advertised as 1970s, but are most certainly 1960s. The matching bongos are a nice plus!

Hi All. I sent an inquiry to the seller of this kit. Here's the reply...

"I bought the kit from the original owner who recalls buying them in either 1969 or 1970 but leans towards being 1970 as he believes it was during his freshman year of high school and he also mentioned that these were a special order kit wrapped in cherry agate pearl and that it has had the cherry hue since brand new. The kit has spent most of its time in the bags and in the closet so I dont think it is a color change due to age and was only set up a few times throughout the mid 70's and only once or twice in recent years but was never gigged or played out of his home. I have a very well preserved snare drum in grey agate pearl in my snare collection as well and it has not a trace of the cherry color to it so it is quite interesting to me also. I want to mention that the cherry hue is much more dominant in person than in the photos and can really be seen in not such bright lighting. I do have a another Slingerland drum that is as rare as can be and have never found any tid bits of info through extensive researching but it is clearly a factory produced Slingerland drum so I believe there are some out there that you wont find even in the different vintage drum sites that are available. Thats about all the info I can offer, I hope its helpful. Thanks for your interest."

So, could this possibly be a rare and uncatalogued finish?