I have been slowly putting together a Rogers Holiday blue glitter kit from various orphans. The mounted tom and floor tom were picked up separately, all hardware removed and cleaned and the shells rewrapped; I'm happy with the results and they sound great. Then a couple of weeks ago I got the following bass drum shell from Ebay for $50 (plus $50 shipping... a little high but whatever). Here's the item #:
191196754542
I got the shell and was pleasantly surprised by the condition.... very minor bearing edge repair but the wrap was very bright just like the new wrap on the toms. I put on the lugs, mounts and hoops that I had been saving up but when I put the heads on, I realized that the tension rods (period correct Rogers) were too short and wont reach the lugs by around half an inch, maybe more.
I had some longer t rods around so just went with those, thinking I was just doing something dumb and I wanted to hear what it sounded like. When I went to mount the tom, I realized that the tom mount on the bass drum was toward the front edge of the bass drum and consequently uncomfortably close to me. More frustration.
Now after thinking about it, I believe the bass drum might have originally been a Tower model with center lugs that someone added extra holes to make it a 'Holiday' model (sort of).
I double checked all measurements and can verify the following:
- Hoops are correct width, but original T rods don't reach lugs
- Hole spacing on the inner holes of the lugs are the same width as Tower lugs, suggesting Tower lugs were originally fitted
- No paper badge on the interior and no tell tale washer imprints... maybe it was repainted at some point.
The more I think about this, the more I am convinced that I've got a Tower shell that was drilled for holiday lugs. The final thing that convinced me was that tom mounts on Tower kits seem to mount further to the front on the bass drum.
Can anyone shed light on this and confirm what I'm thinking is correct? The wrap is so nice that I don't want to return it to the seller even if it is does have extra holes. I would probably just use it as is with long non original t rods and mount the tom on a snare stand to get over the 'too close' issue.
Any thoughts?