I play my Slingerland Sound King the most of any of my vintage gear....

Here she is in my living room....vintage sticks, too.

A wide tuning range....similar but not the same as any of my other brass shells.....

Thank you Kevin - nice looking snare! Are those the sticksaver hoops? What exactly is the deal with them? What makes them special?

Well they flange inward....having a rollover, they don't chew up your sticks.

I think they make for a fatter tone for rimshots and rim-related work as well....

These are great snares. When I got back into drums I picked up a 70's version. It came with the correct COS hoops. For giggles I threw a old Premier die cast hoop on the batter I had. That with a old well used Remo CS black dot it gives me the highest tuning range. The steel hoop I think would start to flex with higher tuning. Or it's just fatigued possibly. so the die cast batter hoop is home on it. When I want a super high crisp pop it's my go to! Fun drums to mess around with.

I am in agreeance with my learned colleagues... Grab it at that price...

I played one for much of the 70's. I would jump at the chance to grab a player 5" at that price.. They want a lot more $$ in OZ and are also rarer here.

For me the hoops are the decider, I do have this 6.5.. but it is in competitive rotation with a same spec Rogers..

Cheers

John

I have a 5x14 from 1976 or so that I got for $30 last March, all original. I'm fairly certain that I'm the only owner - it had the original unplayed batter head and warranty card with it. It is a powerful snare with a wide tuning range. It's a great rock snare - pokes a hole through everything!

Hi there - I received it, tuned it and made a little video - I really love its tone, its a great sounding snare despite the look:-)

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDbt_xR6SwU&feature=youtu.be"]Slingerland Chrome over Brass Snare Drum 14 x 5 - YouTube[/ame]

Slingerland offered lacquered brass shells in the late 70's and I would guess that your new drum was one of those. It would be nearly impossible to "polish" the chrome off a shell, especially a Slingerland as they were known for their excellent chrome plating which tended to be thicker than their competition's. To get the chrome off without damaging the shell (ie: not using a sandblaster) the only safe way would almost certainly be to take it to a plating shop and have them de-chrome it (which is a reversing of the plating process). It's possible someone did that but more likely that the drum was brass finish from the start.

Looks and sounds like a cool drum.