My Vintage Mid 60's Slingerland Jazz Kit

Wow even my friend slingerlandfreak came out for this one!
Funny that you should mention edges. I Flat Tabled the drums today and I used a feeler gauge to measure the edges. The worst drum is the 12" tom which is .015" out at a point on the reso side. All other edges are much better than that.
That is down right perfection for vintage drums. No problems with bearing edges here.
This kit is a good puppy :)
I can deal with the imperfections.

Larry and Harry, You guys have my back :)
 
Hey Bob as I said on FB that kit is gorgeous thanks for the heads up of this thread I see the last TIME I signed in to this wonderful forum was almost a year ago!!! Love the kit my friend
 
What's the staining on the mounted tom bearing edge Bob?
Thanks Andy,
The dark on the shell appears to be from the glue that was used to hold the wrap. It is sanded off where head meets edge.
Vintage drums were not made to the standards of today.
The left spur mount was mounted 3/8" lower on the shell than the right one.
I took off the factory high tom mount and there is a 1/2 inch hole drilled right in the center of the bolt pattern for the mount???
This is what you frequently find on old drums.
I will make an insert to turn the hole into a vent because there is no vent.
I plugged the small holes for the mount with black plastic automotive body fasteners.
You hardly notice them against the Black wrap.

Thanks opentune

Thanks Jim, good to see you here.
 
In my haste to beat down another poster (sorry, that was a little aggressive) I forgot to congratulate you, Bob!

Lovely kit. Is the 18" bass drum hard to come by? I don't see too many vintage 18"s, although admittedly my knowledge only really stretches to Gretsch and I know very little about Slingerland drums. It's a great size to have.

It looks like the kit is in really good condition. Nice find.
 
Lovely kit. Is the 18" bass drum hard to come by? I don't see too many vintage 18"s,
Thanks, and yes it is. Most Jazz kits back then were 20". 18" BD's are not super rare, but they are scarce.
Slingerland drums are in the same league as Gretsch, Rogers, and Ludwig.
Slingerland was on top during the 30's and 40's and they held their own during the 50's, but for some reason Slingerland lost out in the 60's. They didn't get big star endorsers and they slowly withered away during the 70's.
It is a somewhat sad tale.

I repainted the hoops in black lacquer today and I glued a loose wrap seam on the 12" tom.
I am waiting for goodies that I ordered to begin arriving next week.
 
Hoops are finished :) That was a fun project! I masked off the inlay and I fine sanded them before spraying them with black lacquer.
Because I am to use a bass drum lifter, I also carved a crescent out at the bottom of what is to be the batter hoop. This is for the bass pedal footboard to pass through.
Drum Workshop does this on their Jazz Series kits.
If you look at the bottom of the left hoop you can see the crescent shaped cutout.

As per slingerlandfreak's advice, I flat table sanded the bearing edges on all of the drums today, then I fine sanded them by hand until they are as perfect as I can make them.
See Andy, no more discoloration on the high tom.
 

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just beautiful. whadda find ! hoops look great & how do they sound (tuned up yet) ? more pics when you get them headed ? thx for all the updates.
 
Nice work Bob, & the hoops look great :)
What flat surface did you use to sand the bearing edges?
Thanks Andy, I took the drums to a friends machine shop.
I stuck sand paper on a flat steel table that is used for detecting warpage in machine parts.
I twist sanded each drum until true.
I made a pencil mark around the edges of each drum. When the pencil mark disappeared from twist sanding, I fine sanded with a sponge type sanding block.
My bearing edges are smoother than the heads that will lie on them :)
Old wood sands really well because the grain doesn't lift up like newly worked wood.

Thanks double_g :) I have never played them yet. They haven't been played in about 40 years.

I should have them up and going by the end of the week.
 
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Thanks Andy, I took the drums to a friends machine shop.
I stuck sand paper on a flat steel table that is used for detecting warpage in machine parts.
I twist sanded each drum until true.
I made a pencil mark around the edges of each drum. When the pencil mark disappeared from twist sanding, I fine sanded with a sponge type sanding block.
My bearing edges are smoother than the heads that will lie on them :)
Old wood sands really well because the grain doesn't lift up like newly worked wood.
That's the way to do it Bob. If you have a good judge of pressure / good hand skills, plus a good eye, that's an entirely valid method, & in many ways, preferable to re-cutting edges. Unless there's huge valleys, etc, a sensitive dressing of the edges is always the way to go.

As a final check, did you put the shells back on the surface & pop a light inside the shell? Just curious, as I know you're a practically minded chap :)
 
Hmmm, recheck the edges after sanding... I never thought of that Andy :)
The edges were in 1965 Slingerland factory condition when I received the drums so there were no major flaws.
They were mainly dirty and there was some wrap glue on them in some areas.
If would have been foolish to do a total recut.
 
I have never played them yet. They haven't been played in about 40 years.
40 years ? wow. something about that stirs the imagination. i am picturing an epic "raiders of the lost ark" movie scene. SET and ACTION:

early one morning, you innocently hit the rack tom & this LOUD godlike tone comes out without warning...40-year-old dust blasts out of the air vent...the tone WON'T stop (!)...the windows shatter...the tone continues as you frantically cover your ears & start yelling...birds & squirrels are screeching & scattering outside like crazy. that big ass oak tree releases all it's nuts at once. finally this heroic tom tone starts fading & stops singing. dust is still in the air, books are continuing to fall off shelves & one last dish smashes on the kitchen floor. outside, the clouds suddenly part & a single beam of sun shines on the Slingerland kit. coincidence ? i think not. :D
 
Hmmm, recheck the edges after sanding... I never thought of that Andy :)
The edges were in 1965 Slingerland factory condition when I received the drums so there were no major flaws.
They were mainly dirty and there was some wrap glue on them in some areas.
If would have been foolish to do a total recut.
I know you checked them, you pedantic old bugger, I was just curious as to how ;) ;) ;)

You're dead on about the recut. On older shells, especially on single ply shells, deeply recutting an edge can release all manner of stresses, & that may have serious implications for the shell's form. If it's not f(*^((* don't fix it.
 
I know guys, this is so cool, the suspense is killing me too!
I bought a 40+ year old kit that neither I, nor anyone else has played in decades.
I brought it home, I ordered a whole bunch of stuff for it purely on speculation. I have to make it work or I will be a complete loser :)
I guess that there is a fine line between Einstein, and an Idiot!

Tonight I mounted the DW Rail Consolette, The Ludwig Atlas Isolation Tom Mount, and the DW Bass Drum Lifter. Everything went well with no issues.
I am expecting more bits to be delivered tomorrow. I have band practice tomorrow night so I will not have time to do anything to the project kit. It appears that Thursday night will be the next work night on, "Ye Ole 65".

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I am dealing with craigslist morons who want to buy my stunning Mapex Saturn Mahattan Jazz kit for almost nothing :)
That is not going to happen!
 
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Saw this the other day, didn't have a chance to log in and comment. (S)he's / it's a beauty I don't have a issues with your mods, much of the 60's hardware left a fair amount to be desired. None the less that is a sweet score. Looking forward to pics and sounds.
 
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