One of the best sounding drums ever!! Gene Krupa was the King of Swing and had the sound people were copying. When he played his Slingerlands it just sounded cool and the music was better for it.

A crisp sounding set of today, would not have the same affect.

I guess I'm stuck in the old days and just turned 40 yesterday!!

So any 40's, 50's and or 60's solid shell drums are still highly regarded and bring in a respectable price on Ebay.

I have never owned a 20's or 30's Slingerland snare, so I can't say much about the sound back then, but they are expensive drums and I think it is more the rarity then the sound in my opinion for collectors. Although they probably are excellent sounding drums.

David

Ohh, I also do not like the clam shell strainer and most of the Radio Kings I have owned have had those usually problems, many of which are age related and probably not factory related.

So I think the drums were probably coming off of the line with reasonably good quality and consistency. I think then over the years as the employee base changed so did the quality.

I talked to a guy the other day that worked at the Niles plant and he remembers working in high school at the factory and they put him on the shell line with his friends. They moved around from station to station through the factory.

He would not show up for work for days and get a call from the manager that they needed help and to come back to work.

He did not care about the drums and it was just a job for him and the quality is reflective of that during the 70's

David

I've owned at least 30 solid shell Slingerland snares...from the '30s thru the '60s and I've never had one that was out of round...go figure. That being said, I've never found the solid shell maple ones to be the best sounding. My favorites have been the 3 ply drums like the Hollywood ace and the similar shell Leedys. I also like the '60s drums with the Chrome over brass shells.

I just got a circa 1961 radio king on ebay...was a very reasonably priced biuy it now...everything was near perfect...it still had the original heads and snares. When I took it out of the box, the top head was worn to heck and had a cigarette burn...and it sounded great.

I cleaned it up, put on new Remo Ambassadors (my favorite) and now the drum just sounds OK...

Rich....you mean you screwed it up by putting a new head on it?Hmmmm ...thats funny....try putting a cigarete hole in it.

I love Radio Kings(solid-shelled ones) to all heck, but my favorite snare(of any manufacturer) is a Magnum snare from the late 70's/early 80's. It's 7x14, and there is something about it---you can tune any way you'd like, and it sounds great! Even at a medium tension, it has this amazingly musical sound that stands out from everything else. I believe it is a maple/poplar/maple configuration.

That having been said, I'd like to add a 6-1/2" or deeper RK to my collection.

Go figure!

Dan

I have a 6 1/2" deep '30s RK in gold/green duco, with the adjustable extension bridges, which apparently dates it to 1936-7. The paint is chipped, but about 85-90% of it's there. It's definitely a player's drum, not one of the NOS beauties some of you guys no doubt have.

The shell's a little fat for modern heads, but I've had all the lugs off and I don't think it's out of round. Right now I have Aquarian American Vintage heads on it.

It sounds great and I've gigged with it. The adjustable bridges work like a charm. It's too bad Sling. did away with them so soon in the RK's lifespan.

I'll try and post pics of it here some time soon.

--Dave A.