Happen to find a couple of pics. Got the snare and kick drum, along with a a good size load of various, old drum stuff I purchased locally a couple of years ago. mostly MIJ stuff, and a lot of mismatched odds and ends, and orphans. Once I got he snare sounding good, it inspired me to build a kit around it. these were my only 2 Olympic drums, but I did get a John Grey & Sons, Autocrat rack tom in the same load, and had previously aquired a nice, old Ajax, 14" marching snare, which I thought, (and was proven correct) would make a nice floor tom. At least they're all similar era, British drums, and I love playing them. Did an economy wrap job on them, but I kind of like the result. Nice, tight little kit.

Vintage Olympics are very fine drums. Same shells used by Premier. Essentially they are a "scaled down" Premier kit; much the same as a Ludwig Standard kit when compared to the Ludwig Classic Series. Olympic wood snare drums sound excellent, blending perfectly into the music regardless of genre. The late great Art Blakey regularly gigged with an Olympic kit during the early years of his career. Vintage British drums rule!

Best I could find on the net were these,

6o`s Olympic 6 lug model 1182 gold sparkle and white something 8 lug Olympic model 1002

Same drum different model numbers, same 60`s era too.

I forgot to link the website. Earlier drums the same had different badges.

Sorry, better shot of the Gold 1182...

I found the site I got the info from.....

http://www.vintageolympic.co.uk/snare-drums.html

Nice kit, DaddyNowhere! Yeah, your snare is a dead ringer for mine except for the muffler placement, which is weird. I wonder what that's about? Custom order or self-mutilation?

Right, quoting myself now...

Just home from a gig where I used this drum. Great ring on the rim shots, big and brassy. Loved that, but not sure if I like the sound when hit in the centre. Has a kind of thin sound and a bit tinny and rattley, which doesn't sound like the right way to describe a wood shell snare, but I think I need to tweak it more. DaddyNowhere, could you show me pic of the snare beds on yours? I'm wondering if I should do something there. All I can say at this point is not bad. Not good, but not bad. More work required, methinks...

Sorry, no pics of snare bed, and I've got the drum sounding the way I like it, so I really don't want to disassemble it. Pretty straight forward; sanding block was the right size, so I just carefully sanded, (not too deep) trying to keep block level, and making sure there were no sharp areas where it transitions to regular bearing edge.

I suppose that it depends on the sound you're looking for. With the kind of drumming style, and tunes I'm playing, I really like the tone, and feel of this drum. Not a 'big rock' sound, (at least not with how I've got it tuned) but rather, a nice, tight, woody tone. I keep my snare wires loose, and find I get a nice tone with brushes as well. Works for me.

My first kit was a Stewart, my second was Olympic. I cut my performance teeth at a fresh young age with those babies! My sentimental heart loves them.

Fair enough, sometimes it takes a long time to get it sounding just right, so I get where you're coming from.

I used brushes quite a bit last night, and the sound wasn't bad. The sticks didn't do it for me however, but then I've only just started using this drum, so looks like there's a lot more work ahead! Thanks for sharing though, you've got a really nice kit!