I have a mid 70s 10 llug COB 6.5 x 14 slingerland snare, zoomatic throwoff. Gene Krupa sound king?
Anyway-the lugs are clearly not spaced evenly such that some of the tension rods need to be angled to span from rim to lug.
There are no new holes in the shell. Each hole for the lugs is nicely drilled but spacing is off in some areas so that some lugs are closer to each other than others.
Is this common-or am I just lucky?
Erich
I have a mid 70s 10 llug COB 6.5 x 14 slingerland snare, zoomatic throwoff. Gene Krupa sound king? Anyway-the lugs are clearly not spaced evenly such that some of the tension rods need to be angled to span from rim to lug.There are no new holes in the shell. Each hole for the lugs is nicely drilled but spacing is off in some areas so that some lugs are closer to each other than others.Is this common-or am I just lucky?Erich
Hi Erich!
I've had dozens of Slingerland COB snare drums over the years and have never had any issues with lug holes that were incorrectly "drilled". Actually, the holes were punched. Now, that isn't to say that the punching machine might have been off occasionally. If the shell were mine, I'd take a measuring tape and check the distance from lug hole to lug hole around the shell. Also, check to see if the shell is out of round...unlikely, but you never know.
Try to post some pictures if you can. We all love pictures!
-Mark
Hi Mark,
The holes do look punched neatly, not drilled. I did measure to confirm. Pictures are worth 1000 words. I will get some posted.
Erich
ok. got my act together with some pictures. In the first two, the distances are measured between lugs; in the third, the result of the uneven spacing is angled tension rods in some spots. The worst spot is around the muffler.
Erich
Erich!
Wow!! Sure appears to be off somehow! First, did you take the pictures with an iPhone? That's probably the cause of the rotated pictures when you click on each one. Some websites are able to readjust pictures when uploaded, but VDF tends to looks at the embedded data of the picture and post them the way the camera takes them. You need to hold your phone horizontally and the pictures will display properly on VDF. Just some FYI!! I went ahead and adjusted your pictures to make them easier to see for everyone.
While a lot of work, if the drum were mine, I'd be doing a complete disassembly so I could check on all the holes with a soft tape measure, not a metal ruler. There certainly appears to be odd hole punching going on, so I'd like to see for myself what's going on. While it can't fix the problem, at least you'd know what happened! Also, I have seen issues with hoops, where there was some kind of error in production. Certainly not as common as hole punching errors, but it's possible!
-Mark
Bad hoops can cause the same symptom, but yours does appear to be the shell.
I would take all of the lugs off and measure from each lug to see if they all wander or if just one or two are off using a flexible measuring tape. Measure from the left side of the hole on one to the left side of the hole on the next. Since you are using the same reference point on both, it is the same as measuring the center to center measurement and is very accurate.
If it is just two that are off, the solution will probably be to file the holes in the direction they need to go to be the same measurement from lug to lug. Assuming they are off by only an 1/8" or so this should be doable with no evidence from the outside. The lug mounting washers may cover this up on the inside as well.
Bad hoops can cause the same symptom, but yours does appear to be the shell. I would take all of the lugs off and measure from each lug to see if they all wander or if just one or two are off using a flexible measuring tape. Measure from the left side of the hole on one to the left side of the hole on the next. Since you are using the same reference point on both, it is the same as measuring the center to center measurement and is very accurate. If it is just two that are off, the solution will probably be to file the holes in the direction they need to go to be the same measurement from lug to lug. Assuming they are off by only an 1/8" or so this should be doable with no evidence from the outside. The lug mounting washers may cover this up on the inside as well.
You stated that more eloquently than I was about to do. An elongated hole should be hidden under the lug.
You got a picture of the badge/grommet? That may give you an indication if it is a repro shell or not.
Most peculiar. I would have thought this would have been more indicative of a mid/early 80's drum as things were sliding downhill in Niles.
