You can also buy new reproduction arms from Steve Maxwell. He sells them on his website and Reverb... https://reverb.com/item/5912090-maxwell-slingerland-style-tom-holder-reproduction-arm-only

The only minor issue is that the tube that goes into the tom is rotated 180 degrees, meaning that the crease you normally see on top is now on the bottom. You'll have to remove the bracket on your tom and turn it 180 degrees to match up with the new arm. I'm not quite sure why Steve has them manufactured this way, but my guess is that it may have to do with letting us know this is a repro part so someone won't pass it off as original. Just my hunch!

-Mark

Hey Mark!

Actually, Steve talks about the WHY behind the 180 degree flip on the tube/channel. He did it to HIDE all the unsightly "tightening" marks from showing after repeated use! Your hunch was a good one regardless though as I doubt Steve would ever try to pass a repro off as an original anyway! But that was the reason for it according to Steve!

Tommyp

Hi TP!

Yes, I did see where Steve explains about the 180 degree flip. The issue with this is that you very rarely see these tightening marks on the Setomatic holders that use the chrome brackets. Those are the ones that use the metal spring tab that presses against the arm. You do see these marks from the original aluminum bracket, where the tightening bolt digs directly into the arm! The other issue is that both the aluminum and chrome Setomatic bass plates use T bolts that do dig directly into the down-post. Talk about a flawed design!

As to the Maxwell arm, you still have to flip the tom bracket 180 degrees, with the either the T bolt or drum key bolt facing down. To me, this is just a bit inconvenient, but I could probably live with it if I needed a new Setomatic!

Years ago, I had a friend that owns a custom metal machine shop make me up some of the steel "tangs". I installed them into many of my Slingerland bass drum brackets to eliminate any more "flea bites"! Yes, it takes quite a bit of hand filling to get the tangs to fit properly, but it eliminates the problem! Check out the down post from a NOS Setomatic for a Slingerland J5 kit I had some years ago. That post will NEVER get "flea bites"! Also a picture of this part that I installed on my 1975 BR 80N kit. The picture of the aluminum version was from the 1968 BR 80N.

-Mark