Greetings, vintage drum guru collective. I've been lurking around here (and there) for awhile now, and finally felt like I'd tapped out my own research abilities - and had taken enough pictures - to humbly kneel before the experts and aficionados and ask for some insight.

A brief introduction: I'm a singe-r and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass, keys, sax, blah blah) who is just realizing that I will never be complete without digging into the wonderful world of drumming. I've always been the guy in the band who isn't the drummer but who sits down at the drums the second the drummer steps away (don't hold it against me), but I've finally taken the plunge and bought my own kit. I also have a 2-and-a-half yr old son who is OBSESSED with the drums - scripture says something about training up a child in the way that he should go, and I figure you can't start too early - so he has also, in part, inspired the recent purchase...although I only let him play "daddy's new drums" sparingly - he has a little practice pad and a pair of 5Bs that he would wail on literally all day long if we'd let him.

So, I've been poking around for a kit, and saw that a local estate auction had a Slingerland kit coming up. I showed up - not having done much research beforehand about Slingerlands or vintage drums in general - and as soon as I saw how complete and original and pristine the kit was, knew it had to be mine. I won, albeit with a finally higher winning bid than I'd gone in hoping for (as often happens with the auction format), but figured the kit was still worth more than I paid. Incidentally, it came with a bunch of crappy-sounding, but obscure, vintage cymbals: a 14" ufip, an 11" zenjian, and a 14" hi-hat and 18" "ride" set by "Caravan." All went on ebay - I wasn't interested in keeping them because, well, they just didn't sound good to me, but I made about 1/3 of what I spent on the kit BACK via the ebay auctions - so I was thrilled with that! (It brought the net expense down enough that the wife is letting me keep the drums, at least!)

I know a picture's worth 1000 words to you guys, so here they are. Lots. Here are a few in case you don't want to sift through the flickr set:

Here's my feeble bit of additional commentary.[LIST]

[*]The snare is chrome-over-wood, with the "Rapid" throw off. 8 lugs, 16 snare wires. Not sure if that makes it a Hollywood Ace or Deluxe Student model or what. No maple reinforcing ring, not sure how many plies (maybe you can tell from the pics). Everything works great and it sounds AWESOME, in my opinion.

[*]Badges are black-and-silver football-shaped, and s/ns (all in the 200,000s) seem to indicate early- to mid-70s.

[*]Sparkling red pearl isn't the typical crushed glass, but the sort of octagonal "confetti" look that DrCJW differentiates here. Not sure if that's more or less desirable, but I was just excited that it was a bit of an anomaly.

[*]No extra holes anywhere from removed/altered hardware. All drums have reinforcing rings except the snare.

[*]All heads appear to be factory originals. Toms have coated Slingerland batter heads on top AND bottom.

[*]Toms and snare all have that little internal muffler/tone control thing. In fact, I have one extra one that came with the kit - doesn't look like it was ever installed the kick or anything, so maybe just an extra.

[*]Kick ("tempo king") and hi-hat pedal ("direct pull"?) both have in-tact original leather "pulls." Stands have the red Slingerland / Niles, IL sticker. They're not the "flush base" kind (except the hi-hat stand), I guess these are called "rigid" in the catalog (?).

[*]Finish and chrome is all virtually flawless. The only thing is, there's some almost imperceptible fading on the left side (when seated, playing) from, I suspect, where the drums were set up near a window with light coming through at certain times of day. It's primarily affected the L side of the 12" tom and the kick; it's unfortunate, but VERY slight.

[*]Sizes are 8x12 and 9x13 rack toms, 14(?16?)x16 floor tom, 14x20 kick and snare is 5.5(I think)x14.[/LIST]Anyway, I loves it, loves it, loves it. Now, if I could just figure out how to get the kick tuned and sounding good (again: newbie), I'd probably only stop playing them long enough to eat and sleep.

Some things y'all can help me figure out, if you'd be so kind:

1. At first I thought this was the "modern solo" kit (No. 2R), but browsing the catalog pages I can find online, I see it has the double-sided center lugs (is this what the catalog calls "separate tension"?) characteristic of the "jam session" and "stage band" kits - more entry-level/student-line, right?; BUT unlike those kits, mine has 12" and 13" mounted toms, and NO cymbal holder mounted on the kick (and no holes where one would have been). So, not sure what to make of that. Could it be some kind of special order deal - like, this is how it all came from the factory, but not a "straight-outta-the-catalog" kit? Is this basically a special order 5 pc. stage band kit?

2. would appreciate any insight you might have on specific year (my guess is '73-'75??); specific model(s) of kit, snare, etc, or whether it's more of a custom thing; particular types of wood comprising the shells, and number of plies; and approximate value. Is the hardware worth anything apart from the complete kit?

3. the bass drum legs come out at what seems to me to be a really wide angle; fully extended, they both touch the floor, but just barely enough to keep the kick from rocking too much, but no elevation per se. And since it's a 20" kick, it seems to me that it might need a riser for the kick pedal to make proper contact.

So, what should I do here? do i need a riser? Can I get the legs to work without significantly altering the legs or the mounts on the kick? Seems like a design flaw to me, but I don't want to mess anything up.

My immense gratitude, in advance, for your help!