It is black gold duco, The broadway standards are awesome snare drums I own two of them myself, This is considered one of the snare drums to have as a collector player. If you can do the paint job yourself go for it, The way it is flaking you can't save it other than to just clear coat spray it. the stamp date 3803 means march 1938.

Hey, thanks for the feeback and nice to know that it's going to sound good when it's finished. Out of interest are they all 15" or was there a 14" option as well?

Nice drum! Like VM2K said...Leedy standard drums sound great! If it were mine, I would polish up the hardware and put a clear coat on the paint that is there now. Of course...it all depends on personal taste. Oh...and there were 14" versions on this drum. As for the strainer...I'm not sure where to find a replacement. That appears to be an older 4-bolt style strainer...not the more common 3-point Leedy. I guess eBay may be your only hope...or you could look up AK drums. He could even make you the pieces you are missing, but I'm sure it will cost you. Best of luck!

http://www.ak-drums.com/

No most are 14" shells.

Thanks for the replies guys and all very interesting - especially about the size. I think I'm going to strip all of the hardware off the shell and then see what the paint looks like after a careful clean. Obviously I can't do much about the places where it's flaked off but it might look good enough to retain. I am torn though because I'd love to have a crack at redoing the Duco paint - and I do happen to have an old turntable!

There is so much flaking of that finish that it leaves little left to save. I'd strip it to bare wood, prime it and re-do the DUCO finish. Reproduction four point strainers are available, look it up online. If you do a search of the archives you'll find step by step tutorials I wrote in response to similar questions about how to do a DUCO finish in the past. It's all in the archive. Use the Search feature at the top of the Home page. If you need any help along the way... I'm here.

John

It sounds like you're not averse to this kind of extreme aging. I like it. There seems to be a few good panels. If you can clean that flaky area without the remaining paint falling off, then that's a question indeed.

For myself, no matter how good a re-finish I did, I don't think I'd like it as much as the original, for philosophical reasons...:)

Mitch

Thanks for your input guys and more food for thought. I'll look for the reproduction strainers for sure. I've seen a three point on ebay but not the four. More research needed! I took off one of the lugs this evening and the original colour is so fresh underneath. Really striking.

One way to look at restoration from a philosophical point of view this: Does anyone else have a better example of that drum, or even more to the point, has anyone else got an essentially undeteriorated original example? If someone has that drum, or better yet several people, and you are not modifying the best remaining example, then it seems reasonable to do a restoration once the condition has arrived to that seen on your drum shell.

Even the Egyptian Department of Antiquities recently restored and unvailed one of the colossi from the West Bank of the Nile rather than leave it in a deteriorated "original" state.

Do folks restore furniture, buildings, automobiles and the like. Yes. So why wouldn't we do that with drums if they have arrived to the point of needing it?

Now, if the worn look suits you, leave it as it is. If you are torn on what to do, sell it and let someone else be stressed out about what to do. :)