Just because the badge is loose doesn't necessarily mean it's been tampered with. The pic of the internal side of the badge isn't great, so take a pic of it & post here.

Chris

I took a look at it through the head and it looks pretty good but I will take some close ups with the head off tonight and post it here. At work at the moment.

Everything else on the drum looks original and un-tampered with, except the snare wires themselves but I can live with that.

Thanks for the help and I'll have pics up tonight. Now if it is original is there anything that can be done to lock it down without messing anything up? Is it even worthwhile to try and locking it down?

Description says, "..Nearly mint condition" ?????

I guess that is a subjective term. However the hardware is in very good shape and I can tell it will clean up well. There are some small rust spots but no pitting. The wrap is also very very good. no cracks and a slight amount of yellowing but it just happens to be exactly the same amount of yellowing as the rest of my kit. "yellowing" actually looks a little more "brown" on BOP in my opinion.

Of course there is that issue with the ring that I am going to inspect much closer tonight but seems like a fairly easy fix.

So if the badge is original and everything else is correct then I will be quite happy with it. I wouldn't even really mind if the badge wasn't original but I would have paid much less. In the end I just want a snare that matches my kit.

That's pretty normal, I wouldn't worry about it. Seen it plenty of times on '60s keystone badge Ludwigs.

You can either use a grommet tightening tool to clamp it down better, or a drop of super glue applied behind the badge with a syringe.

Thanks,

Bill

That's good to know and thank you for the info. I guess I am being a bit panicky probably because it was a somewhat risky impulse ebay purchase. These seem to never come up as a pure auction... of course now there is another one up on ebay... after not seeing one for the last 2 months.

grommet looks original to me. ive owned several from this period that have loose badges. if you do decide to tighten the situation up, please be careful. the first one i attempted, i mushroomed the grommet by overtightening it. so take it slow if you do anything with it. thats gonna make a beautiful drum.

mike

Not that I think I will try it but what is the process for tightening the grommet? If it involves a hammer I probably would try some other means (like a drop of glue) before I try that.

Congrats that's a really nice snare!