No, mine is a 22 inch bass but the Floor Tom does have the butterfly wings. Also the toms are deep, not like the jazz kits.

HSS era is from '89-'94. HSS was the marketer and distributor of Slingerland drums during the Gretsch ownership period. HSS stands for Hohner, Sonor and Sabian. Also, per Slingerland historian Dr. Wenk, the Artist Custom shells are 5-ply. Maple interior and exterior with three plys of white mahogany in the middle. Does your BD have wood or metal hoops?

Good information, no these definitely would not be that model, I think it's an early Sprit model. The BD has metal hoops.

OK. Metal BD hoops would indicate Spirit model. 940xxx serials are consistent with later HSS era. According to Dr. Wenk the shell construction on early Spirits was 5-ply mahogany. Later HSS Spirit models were 7-ply mahogany with an interior ply of maple.

Someone is wrong about something because these are 3 ply, not 5, and not 7. Anyway I'm not sure I much care anymore. These drums sound great, very much like my old Slingies and way better than my old Rogers. I guess in the end that's all that really matters.

Thanks for everyone's input.

I understand your affinity for Slingerland drums and their sound. I have owned and gigged with more Slingerland drum sets than any other brand. However, I'm trying to get my head around your statement about those Spirit drums sounding "way better than my old Rogers". What kind of Rogers drums did you own? My 1966 Rogers Holiday drums in the Top Hat configuration are some of the best sounding drums I have ever been privileged to own.

My Rogers were about 1972 small "R" with re-rings and the internal shell was coated with some kind of grey faux stone finish paint and came with a metal dynasonic snare which I never liked, I've always preferred wood snares. Anyhow I'm not sure what model that would have been. Also the hardware was absolute crap. The most idiotic tom mounting system I've ever seen with these big clunky knobs you had to twist down over a thin hexagonal rod that extended inside the drum. Those awful mounts sucked a lot of resonance out of the drums. My Slingies are FAR more resonant, project much better, and just have a tone that to me is much more appealing to the ear. Also as is consistent with the era, the shells are deeper, which is probably part of why they project better. I'd say the Rodgers were warmer, great for a vintage sound. But to me they seemed rather pedestrian and wholely unremarkable. Of course, I'm constructing this all from memory, I haven't seen those drums in more than thirty years.

Found a picture, these are exactly like the Rogers I had back in the 70's.

I'm trying to not be argumentative as sorta like a New Year's resolution. So, I'll just say that your Rogers set must have been a rare exception to the greatness of the Swivomatic era Rogers drums. Swivomatic hardware set the bar very high for drum hardware. Its ball and socket principal is still copied by many drum manufacturers. Rogers raised the bar again with Memrilok tubular-type hardware which is also still copied by other drum makers. I was not a big fan of Dynasonic snare drums mainly because it took way too much jacking around with too many adjustments to get it to sound as good as many simpler snare drums. I also prefer a wood shell snare drum.

For me the problem with the swivomatic hardware is that it just did not hold up well. The drums were used when I bought them, I guess they were 5-7 years old, by then they would not hold position very well and it was agonizing to loosen and tighten the part that connects to the drum. Basically they were worn out after just a few years.

I feel it should last much longer, I have 50 year old MIJ hardware that still sets up and holds position like it was brand new. For a high end drum mount system to wear out so quickly is in my view uncacceptable. Now I can't say what abuse the previous owner might have put them through, all I can say is that by the time I owned them, they were certainly still usable but problematic.