I too have a theory. What if this drum has had the lugs turn the wrong direction (put back on in the wrong up/down config)? The mounting holes appear to be exactly even all the way for the lug mounts. If you tuned them the other way, all the way around, would that then bring the gate into alignment? It seems to my eye that is the simplest explanation, but then again, I only know my around around a very few drums. Try flipping a couple just enough to hold the hoop to see if that realigns the gate to correct position.

Looks like it is re-wrapped to me, and I don't want to seem like a smarty pants, but am I the only one to catch the mis-matched lug here? There is one lug that looks like one of my MIJ lugs on there. And this is what I think. When the builder put it back together, the lugs are reversed, making it look as thought the strainer is in the wrong place. Reversing all of the lugs would definitly realign the gate to right position.

He mentions in the eBay writup that it's missing one lug. This one feels off.

DOH Missed that part, Michael. I really only read here, did not go over to the feebay listing.

Anyway, I think you flip a couple of lugs next to the gate, one on either side of the drum and it lines the gate back up. It still does not look right as the ink clearly suggests drilling, and the the edges of the wrap, as pointed out, are uneven.

Still a nice little drum, but maybe not what the seller thinks it is. I don't think he is trying hide anything as he has posted all of the comments about the oddities. Kudos to him!

You would have to flip all the lugs around or the tension rod holes wouldn't match the lug locations anymore. And that would just move the gate to the opposite side.... not centered again, but on the opposite side.

It's only off by a quarter inch.... my '41 RK is off by that much also at the throw gate.

I think too, that after the drum was re wrapped, the wrapee couldn't get his drill inside the drum, and having not yet thought about poking a pilot hole in the wrap through the holes from the inside with an awl or whatever, and then drill at those locations from the outside, thought he would plot the holes from the outside with ruler and marker. He marked off a couple of locations, and then thought of the inside-out method. But, he used the wrong kind of marker and the marks he made would not wipe off.

I think the shell was drilled originally for what it is......

They didn't make very many of these, only as special orders, so the workers may not have been exactly familiar with them. A quarter inch mistake in plotting the shell for drilling doesn't seem too far fetched from that perspective.

This may be totally wrong, but why else would a solid maple 13 x 4.5 shell be made to begin with, if it were not destined to be one of these un-cataloged but documented Radio King Piccolos?

I'm tempted to buy the thing just to do forensics on it. Regardless of its true origin, I think this has been a good exercise in critiquing a potential purchase.

Kevins – Some of your thought process is what made me think it may have been a 13 with cigar lugs. Why else would there be a 13 running around? But then I don't think the hole patterns are the same.

I'm not saying this drum is legit, but...

if if was a re-wrap, someone would have had to wrap it with covering from an old drum as that WMP is faded and was never available from the places that sell wrap. (I know they all have versions of WMP, but none that matches the old stuff...)

Many Radio Kings have messed up grommets. The thick solid shells sometimes made it hard to completed the grommet.

Mis-drilled, mis-alligned lugs and snare gates are real common with Slingerland, as are "guide" lines for drilling.

There's a lot here that would keep me from buying the drum if I was interested, but, consider this...

To "fake" this drum, someone would have had to cut down an old shell, remove and re-install the glue rings, finds some pricey parts, and then after all of that, would drill it with the snare beds off, lugs off, etc.

Could be a "project" that has gone bad and gotten passed around, or a special order that had typical Slingerland sloppiness.

Somewhere, someone knows...

Yes it has, but now my head hurts.....

Yepper, why else would a 13 inch solid maple shell be made?