And pics of the snare:

Nice little snare. This is a Pearl, but not as late as you might think. What shell?

And the hoops are correct, later Pearl, around 74-75. Cost cutting measures re the reason for the foil badgers, donchaknow

It has a Yamaha coated batter head on the snare side, so I haven't been able to really see inside yet. I peaked into the vent hole, no surprises, luan with re-rings. I wont know how many plies till I pop one of the heads off, but I'm in the middle of so many projects, it will be a while. It'll take me a while to figure out what I want to do with the strainer anyway. I can tell you that the whole thing is pretty light. That may not be such a good thing, but we'll see.

If nothing else I think it's a pretty handsome drum that should clean up nicely, even if it doesn't turn into much of a player. I'm definitely puzzled as to why this style of snare hoop is on there, though.

Oh, and if this is a mid 70s drum, why wouldn't it have one of the black plastic badges like the one above? Hmmm...

Well, the buyer, or distributor, is the one that designed the badges and the builder just installed them. The re-ring is going to be the key to the era. These hoops are fairly common, so it's no real surprise. My bepuzzlement is the badge. These foil ones are really cheap, and the strainer is an older one, so the question may be is this a MIJ or MIT....the re-ring will be the clue. There are two distinct type from the 60 and 70s, Japan and Taiwan. The Japanese drums are more carefully constructed and used better woods.

This could be a transition drum, from the Star to Pearl era. The shell is likely 3 ply, but could be one of those 4 or 5 ply like I found, with re-rings.

No, this isn't a MIT drum, it says 'Made in Japan' on the badge. I have seen some earlier stencils with small rectangular foil badges, like the one on my Jazzmaster snare. Also, I would think if this were a 70s drum, the strainer would be one of the heavier designs. There are no extra holes, so I'm pretty certain that the strainer is original, so if it is an earlier design, I'm thinking that this might be one of the early (early-mid 60s?) Pearl stencils. (Unless the hoops negate that dating, but then again, there is no way to know if these hoops are original either.)

So I popped the batter head to get a peak at the inside of the snare. Any ideas?

Regarding the pics from cn679:

To me they are Pearl's for sure: type of damper, the way how the snare protection bow at the snare side hoop is riveted to the hoop, the style of the rail consolette - all not Star-like.

But if I would have seen the oval 'Stewart - Made in Japan' badge only and before, I would have sworn it's a Star's drum ...

Ralf

NB: and slotted screws inside of the shell for fixing the lugs? Strange. Star used yellowish brass-like cross slotted screws always (my little opinion).

Ok, This is what i think on your drum..I would date this drum from right about 1965-69..Pearl used that badge of these drums then..The lugs/rims would also date the drum at this time..A question on the strainer is the handle did it have a nut on the end to hold it to the strainer or does the strainer have threads were the handle would screw into?These two things would date the drum right at or about 1965 to 1967..Or was or does it look like the handle and the inside plate that holds the snare wire all one piece? Does the handle look like it was broken off at the top of the strainer? If so this would date the drum from 1967-69 .It was the time that Pearl change these strainer handles...Mikey

No new information on this snare, just wanted to cross-referrence threads. This Stewart snare is nearly identical to comover's blue sparkle Stewart snare in the thread below.

The only difference that I can see between the two is a very slight difference in the badge: whereas my drum says "Made in Japan" underneath the air vent on the badge, comover's snare does not. I'm not sure if this is significant in any way or just note-worthy.

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=26044