I have a mystery drum as well.... no one could ID the lugs either.

It's a 30s or 40s tom, but has lugs that would have gone on a beaded snare shell like yours.

Your shell looks like a beauty, I hope you get an ID on her.

Here's a link to my old post... maybe we will both get lucky ?!?!

Link........

The drum is a Carlton. I took it apart to clean it and in very small print on the bottom of a lug is written IN ENGLAND. I guess the MADE is worn off. Also inside the lug casting is stamped...again faintly...DALLAS.

My Carlton Marching snare says London-Dallas Carlton. London & Dallas were two chaps involved with Carlton drums decades ago I believe.

So - mystery solved! Now all I have to do is see if the drum actually had a name-plate or badge at one time. The adventures of Vintage drums...

The first photo shows a faint DALLAS in the lug casting.....better seen with magnifying glass in real life.

I carefully removed all the tacks.........the tacked on reso head was too lose to be of any use. I cleaned the tacks - I'll spray them with white rustoleum as I did the 47 Gretsch tacked tom I reheaded recently. The next step is to order some nice calfhide to tuck the batter & tack this reso head. Looking forward to it. I love the WMP finish it's in pretty good shape. The drum is not too badly out-of-round.......about 1/16 - 1/8th". The Remo head that was on it fit beautifully.

Congrats on your ID !!

I tacked a nice American White calfhide on this drum today. It went well & I'm really please with the sound. I could use 6 new t-rods though - most of the ones that came with the drum are bent.....we're talking s-curve bent. The lugs are okay but they have the little brass receptors & I fear - with tuning - they might strip out. I'm being very careful with them.

The tacked head "sings" ! I will put a calfhide batter on it later.

Pix later today..........

Congrats on your success with this drum!! Personally, those drums with the tacked bottom head drive me completely CRAZY....I cant stand not being able to tune the bottom head. Many friends of mine who have those kinds of drums convert add lugs to the bottom and make it a normal two headed drum so they can tune them. Nice looking drum you have there!

Thanks - Yes - I would like to be able to tune the bottom head.

In the past few months I've ended up with three drums with a tacked reso head. I guess putting a tacked head on was a challenge I took on more or less to see if I could do it and do it well. The first drum was a Gretsch 1947 8x10 tom. I tacked a head on it without too much difficulty and the drum sounds great....even when not being able to tune the reso head - it's amazing. The second drum I picked up is a 1953 Gretsch 1616 floor tom - Duco finish. The drum is in great shape - it did not have heads. I stewed over the idea of restoring it to the original tacked headed drum or adding this nice 3PLY drum to my 58 Gretsch kit (20/12/14) to make it a one up two down setup. The later won out. But it was not going to be easy or cheap. I did not want to mess with drilling the reso lug holes or putting the nice Vintage-like (small hexagon flakes) Gold Sparkle wrap on the drum myself. There's a lot of little things that get in the way & I have no experiance in that. So I was able to drop it off at Ray Ayotte's shop. He is going to do his 'magic' with the drum. He is extremely busy with RAYA Drums - his new drum brand - and I am very lucky that he's even agreed to do this for me.

This latest drum.....I chose not to interfer with it any more than it already has been - it looks like the tom hanger has been added in the spot where the badge used to be and two extra holes were drilled - maybe - maybe not.

The drum sounds incredible the way it is and I'm using it off my hats with the 58 kit right now. I'm using the Fiberskyn Bison head that came with it for now but I may switch it out for a calfhide later. The WMP finish is beautiful.

A long answer to your post .........but the short answer is I like the tacked reso head drums I have so far.

Man what a fine drum! I almost bid on that when I saw it at auction just because of the Bun E. Carlos signature inside. I love that guy! I suspected that might be a Carlton. I'm too into Leedy right now to blow dough elsewhere. My questions for you are; How did you tack the bottom head? I would like to learn how to do that. Where did you learn? Is there any info online? With the Leedys I have the additional issue of the sheet metal ring that is between the skin and the tacks. I'll post a picture if you want. My drum has a puncture right in the middle of the head and it drives me bonkers. I'm also afraid that I might affect the collectibility negatively if I alter it too much.