Here's a picture of my custom-built BR snare drum. It uses a Keller shell with re-rings, COB Stick Chopper hoops and Zoomatic strainer with relief cutout to clear the top hoop. Tommyp has some beautiful ORIGINAL BR snare drums that, hopefully, he will post!

-Mark

Now, let's talk about that eBay BR snare drum listed for a BIN of $999. The seller, skweekerdog, has been selling on eBay for years and has generally been above board with all his offerings. I even purchased a nice Ludwig Rocker kit from him many years ago and had no complaints at all!

However, as of late, I question just a bit what he sells. He currently has a Slingerland Artist snare drum up for sale, purportedly owned and autographed by Gene Krupa. For those of you who may have seen this drum earlier, it sold for $500... yes, to skweekerdog! It's obvious that he is merely attempting to flip the drum for a bit over $200 in profit! Technically, there's nothing wrong with that. The reason I didn't bid during the original sale? There is no provenance for the Gene Krupa signature. Could it be real? Quite possibly, but I wasn't willing to take that chance without written proof!

OK, now to the 4x14 BR snare drum in question. I'll also post pictures for all to see. So much of this drum, at least to me, smacks for being un-original, at least being judged by the badge, which dates the drum to around 1977. The 4x14 BR snare drum appeared in only 2 catalogs... the '71 and '73. I seriously doubt it could be custom ordered in 1977! As previously mentioned, many of the the parts look like they are from the post-Slingerland Niles era. The Zoomatic knob really gives it away, as does the Phillips head screw for the muffler. The wrap may or may not be original. But I can tell you that the placement of the overlap seam, and direction of wrap are not consistent with drums built in the Niles factory. I've had my share of Slingerland drums with 5-ply shells and each and every aluminum grommet was the longer version with a nicely flared-over, rolled edge on the interior. The grommet on the drum in question just doesn't look correct. Nor do the tension rods, which are definitely NOT Niles-era.

Add all this up and, in my mind, the drum is not as advertised. Overall, it's a nice drum, but not a $999 drum! I'm not quite sure it would even go for half that price. The seller may be hoping it sells to someone who isn't quite sure on the originality of the drum, or the seller himself may not really be sure of what he has.

That's my opinion and I'm more than happy to concede any, or all, of this to those with more knowledge on this BR snare drum. Tommyp, what say you?!

-Mark

Thanks, idrum4fun. Very informative and much appreciated. Funny you mentioned the Krupa autographed Artist snare. That one is a Shelbyville with a '66 date stamp, which makes sense, however the Zoomatic is a mid '68 and later model. Did Shelbyville have access to these more than two years earlier than Niles?

Hi slingerfan!

The fact that this drum is a Shelbyville does increase the value. The solid oak rings are pretty cool! I did notice the Zoomatic and my thought is that it was installed after the fact. While not original to the drum, it is the model of Zoomatic I prefer!

-Mark

Hi everyone!

I really appreciate all of your input (and am looking forward to Tommyp!).

Bottom line, it seems as if there are more questions than answers at this point:

1) Whats with those old style screws?

2) Are there supposed to be those wooden rings on this model?

3) Why are there COB stick savers on it?

4) Being that this seems to be a pretty rare model, does that increase the value (even though there is some shell-splitting)?

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge!

Zevid, your drum would be expected to have a 3-ply shell with re-rings. idrum4fun was saying he thought the shell interior and rings did not look like what Slingerland was typically producing at that time. The upper ring does look a little funny and the lower ring appears to have an indentation from a c-clamp. Perhaps it's just the picture, some additional interior photos could be helpful. These are/were relatively popular models to build/reproduce.

After thinking about your snare drum, and viewing photos of other Slingerland snare drums, the possibility exists that your drum started life as a late 50's to early 60's snare drum. I base that on the shells interior and physical condition of the re-rings. Slingerfan mentioned about the lower re-ring, and how it looks like a clamp may have been used on it. I agree with that assessment. It would be very easy to cut down a snare shell of at least 6.5" in depth, remove the lower re-ring and reattach it, and then drill for the extra lugs. This is all merely theory and conjecture, but something that could possibly have been easily accomplished. As long as the drum sounds good and you are happy with it, that is all that matters.

-Mark