Hmmm... I have the exact same kit from the same year.. mine is green satin flames. I'll take a close look at my date stamps tonight to see if they have an x.

I got some ideas but I want to look at my dates first... interestingClapping Happy2

Thanks Jim look fowards to hearing

Will

Ahh.. I'm no to good to you on this one... I was hoping I had a July drum down there in the basement... did they spell out the 4 letter months on the shell stamps, June and July??

Ok since I got nothing real... let me make something up.Cool Dude

My thinking was that maybe back in the day they spelled out July in the shells using all 4 letters in that date stamp... when the switch to August comes around the kid who is stuck "running" the stamp machine that day at the factory is worried about the rumors of a draft for the Viet Nam war coming up so he is trying to decide whether to enlist or try to get into college, he knows he doesn't have the money for college so he figures it's "one, two, three what are we fight'in for?" Somebody yells at him to switch the date stamper to August but he's looking at July and thinking he's got 4 letters to fill and August doesn't have a 4 letter abbr. It's hot in the shop and he's all caught up in the Vietnam issue and it doesn't occur to him that the machine can be rotated to a . or empty space which is hard to see on the stampers, so he just goes with an X after the three letter abbr. Aug... and you sir are the proud owner one of the very few sets of AugX drums shipping out Niles Ill. along with the kid stamping the shells that day... I hope he made it home safe!

Hey Jim ! That is by far the most creative answer to this question I will get I Love it. Haha! Thanks for putting so much creative energy into your answer.

So I feel that the mystery may still remain ? ( although I like your theory very much ) as I checked inside the Bass and it reads 'Aug 66' the two toms read 'Augx 1966' and so does the floor tom.

So I'm open to more thoughts !!

Thanks so much Jim

Will

Well the X is certainly a new one on me. I do know that the P denotes shells to be wrapped.

I'm sure DrCJW has the answer for this although the above example is a creative way of answering the question!

Post it in the Slingerland Section

David

Thank you David. I re-posted the question

Will

[COLOR="Navy"]Ha!

But there's no deep meaning here Will...

Slingerland used standard off-the-shelf rubber date stamps. This particular one, still available today, has rubber wheels with selectable date in month-day-year format, such as JUN 15 1966. The day wheels both contain an X character. If the guy in the shell room decided to include the day in the stamp, he did. If he didn't care about the day, he might just use the X. Or he might use the dash -, which is also standard on the wheel, and which we also often see on 60's Slingerland shell interiors.

Below is a modern standard stamp wheel with the mysterious X and -, and some stamps done back in the day when the shell guy just left it on X, or -.

DrCJW[/COLOR]

Dear Dr C.J.Wenk,

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. It is very much appreciated and you articulated the answer to me perfectly. Such a simple mystery has been solved for me and I quite like the x's and after wondering for three years I am very happily de-mystified.

If it is not too much trouble to ask ...I was wondering what your thoughts were on the two shades of blue on my toms and bass ?

They do not have any sunlight fade and individually look brand new. Did Slingerland sometimes put a kit together with slightly different sparkling blue pearl finishes ?

I know it may be hard to tell without pictures but the darker colours on the bass and small tom match exactly the 1967 swatch on your article ( both in the 124,*** range)

The lighter floor tom and other small tom match the 1964 swatch ( both in the 101,*** range) . My snare matches the 1958 swatch and is 56,***.

It may be an obvious or pointless question to ask so no worries if you don't have the time to answer. It's a beautiful kit and sounds great which is most important !! Thank you so much for the reply.

Best wishes

Will