[COLOR="Navy"]Brandoom:
Well you have a very interesting snare drum with a genuine Slingerland pedigree.
You have a Rolling Bomber snare drum made during 1942 ? 1943. Your snare drum has a solid maple shell and originally had rosewood lugs and strainer body, and wood hoops with matching WMP inlay. An example of the way your snare drum once looked is shown below. The use of wood was a response to the stringent government wartime restrictions of the use of metal in domestic manufactured products, including musical instruments.
When the war ended so did the metal restrictions. Slingerland retrofit metal parts on some unsold Rolling Bomber stock in the immediate post-war restart years of 1946 ? 1947. Often this was also done by dealers or drummers themselves. In addition, Slingerland often circumvented the wartime metal restrictions during 1943 ? 1945 by shipping drums to dealers in kit form ? that is, in parts. This was legal since the regulations only applied to fully assembled products. Slingerland simply let the dealers do the assembly.
So metal parts were retrofit on your Rolling Bomber snare drum, apparently circa 1947 since that is when your grandfather bought the drum. Your metal lugs are the correct style small beavertails for late-war to early post-war. Since the Rolling Bomber had wood hoops and clips and Slingerland had no double-flanged hoops that would fit the Bomber?s 6-lug up/down alternating pattern, metal single flanged hoops were used. The single-flanged metal hoop style on your drum was one that appeared on contemporary Slingerland marching snare drums, so it was readily available for application to your Bomber. Your clips are original Rolling Bomber style. Your rosewood strainer body has been painted to ?match? the metal hardware ? this was sometimes done on rosewood lugs as well. Your brass cloud badge is the correct badge for the Rolling Bombers; this is the second brass cloud pictured and discussed on my badge page.
The wide reinforcing rings and interior of your tom that you show look correct. A little difficult to tell from the picture, but the interior may be mahogany or walnut. Look for any reddish tint to the wood for mahogany; walnut is more a straight brown. Your ?red blocks? sound like a set of Chinese temple blocks, very popular in the 1930s and still well into the 1940s.
I would love to convince you not to do any restoration of the finish. The cracks are not a problem unless the wrap is peeling or chipping off. And in this case it can be bonded back down quite easily. A simple cleaning and polishing with some Novus #1 spray plastic polish and your finish will look marvelous. The other parts can be similarly cleaned, as appropriate for wood or metal. This is a nitrate-based wrap, not like modern PVC plastics, but Novus #1 will work nicely. Also be careful as this finish burns if exposed to high heat. Anything you do to modify the finish, remove the drum?s badge, etc, will drastically reduce monetary value. While some people do play them, Rolling Bombers are not really modern players, and those who love and appreciate historical Slingerland drums usually wince at the thought of recovering them. They are true historical vintage collectibles. Of course, this is just my sincere personal opinion ? these drums are your property.
Great and historical Slingerland drums! Thanks for sharing them.
DrCJW[/COLOR]
