[COLOR="Navy"]Hello Ed:
Your kit sounds great, and its features sound just fine for 1963 Slingerland. We would love to see some pictures, but from your description some basic information on your questions would be this.
On tom badges ? Slingerland started putting badges on snare drums and bass drums in October 1962, but not on toms. Slingerland did not put badges on its toms until June of 1966. So no factory badges on your 1963 Slingerland toms is absolutely correct.
On tom interiors ? Slingerland switched from mahogany interiors on its 3-ply shells to maple in June of 1963, though it is possible to come across a few maple interior shells with May 1963 stamps. But if your toms were made from January to May of 1963 then mahogany interiors is absolutely correct. You say one of your drums is stamped JAN 1963 ? if that is a tom then mahogany interior it should be.
Your snare drum, with a 1963 serial number of 13538 and a maple interior, should have a solid maple (1-ply) shell. That is a valuable snare drum.
As David indicates, if you have a factory original 1963 Slingerland 14x18 bass drum (and not a marching drum conversion) then you have another drum of value all by itself.
The component drums in a Slingerland kit were not necessarily made all at the same time. Bass drums and toms in common sizes and in popular finishes such as Marine Pearl were made ahead of time and stocked in order to be able to meet the higher demand in that finish. When a kit order was being filled, the toms were typically taken from stock, so those drums had often been made weeks or months earlier. Your bass drum is not a common size and was not heavily stocked, so probably was made closer to the order time of your kit. Its serial number and its maple interior puts it in the May ? June 1963 time frame. The serial number on your snare drum is from the May 1963 time frame. So the component drums in your kit were probably gathered together at the factory circa May ? June 1963. And just for fun I?m going to guess that you bought your kit some time around or not too terribly long after the middle of that year.
In any case, altogether, being a one-owner kit, if all original and in good condition, your kit is quite valuable. I'm afraid I do not personally give appraisals on the open forum, but I would observe that a drum shop or drum dealer will of course not be able to give you anything close to market value, since they of course must resell.
Lastly, if I may be permitted a small editorial comment ? it makes my little Slingerland heart feel good that you are concerned about finding the ?right home? for your wonderful drums.
DrCJW[/COLOR]
