These seem to be very rare as I can find very little on the internet about a wood shell version. It does appear in a catalog but finding examples of real ones in the flesh is proving difficult. Anyone here have one?
I'm looking at one here in matt black and wondering whether to buy it.
That shell looks to be of modern manufacture to me. Rerings on old drums are usually solid not plies. But I could be mistaken...
That shell looks to be of modern manufacture to me. Rerings on old drums are usually solid not plies. But I could be mistaken...
Thanks. it's hard to say and I can't find any photos to compare it with. There are a couple on Ralf's Star website but with no internal shots. The catalog is very hard to read but maybe "9ply compressed laminate shell with ____ reinforcing rings" available in wrap and lacquer finishes.
That shell looks to be of modern manufacture to me. Rerings on old drums are usually solid not plies. But I could be mistaken...
I'm with teverson on this...the shell does appear to be a modern Keller. I'm just not sure that an original wood shell would have looked this nice! I could certainly be mistaken, but I'd need to see the shell up close for a final decision.
-Mark
Here's a larger picture of the wood-shell Star King Beat. The description also mentions "hardwood reinforcing rings". While not maple, they were still 1-ply. The shell in the original post clearly shows plies for both the shell and re-ring. That's enough for me to say it is most likely a modern Keller shell...or equivalent.
-Mark
Here's a larger picture of the wood-shell Star King Beat. The description also mentions "hardwood reinforcing rings". While not maple, they were still 1-ply. The shell in the original post clearly shows plies for both the shell and re-ring. That's enough for me to say it is most likely a modern Keller shell...or equivalent.-Mark
Thanks for that Mark. It seems like a lot of effort to convert a Star snare, especially in New Zealand, but you're probably right. I assume somebody had a damaged COB Star shell and switched over to the wood shell. None of the photos shows a badge either.
Ralf will know!
Sometimes we do things just because we can! I took all the hardware from a 60's Star-built drum and transferred them to a Keller 8-ply shell. What a difference in sound! I thought it would be a fun project and I did it...because I could! LoLoLoLo
-Mark
Sometimes we do things just because we can! I took all the hardware from a 60's Star-built drum and transferred them to a Keller 8-ply shell. What a difference in sound! I thought it would be a fun project and I did it...because I could! LoLoLoLo-Mark
that's true Mark. I guess what I meant when referencing New Zealand was the fact you'd have to import a shell with all the cost of shipping and currency exchange rates that entails. But, like you say, sometimes we just do these thing because we can
Hello,
Star, indeed, made some of these KingBeat snare drums with wooden sheels like this. And ALSO some of their late Royal Star kits had such a shell construction, too.
On my web site there are just three snares like his, and a few kits (in section 'lug no. 6370', only).
My Royal Star kits (two of the three I own) do have these heavy weight shells, worked in excellent craftsmanship.
Maybe Star had bought Keller shells for a very small time in their latest years? I don't know.
As far as I know, these shells continued only on very few Tama kits (in their earliest years, with Tama's 'Perfect Percussion' badges). None of the later Tama series appear to have repeated this construction.
Attached: a photo to the inside of one of my Royal Star rack toms.
From local carpenters I learned that my drum shells and the re-rings ( ! ) are made, most probably, from birch and perhaps Mahogany layers in between. But that's not for sure.
Ralf
