Sonor will still make a six ply drum.

They started in the 60`s, went to Champion, then they changed plies to nine with Superchampions and Phonics, and six ply was still availible in Champion and Swinger,Rocker, Action and a few others. Some lower end kits had three ply with rings too, but this has yet to be seen by me !i

The swinger was not the same six ply as the high end lines. Swinger and the others had poplar fill in between the two beech finnish plies. If the Swinger had metal lugs, it would be six ply Beech. Easy to tell by color of plies, Beech being the darker. Finnished veneers were vitical book matched with horizontal joints. If you see horizontal, it was probaly stripped of wrap !i

Yes they do but...

a) a German made Sonor beech shell is now out to lunch expensive

and

b) it wouldn't be vintage.

I'm thinkin that since I can't get another teardrop ft, maybe I can get the same shell from another series and transplant the hardware.

Be almost the same and certainly as good as I'm likely to get.

Champion series is the exact same shell as the later teardrops, edges, and size. The only difference is the hardware.

Teardrops are all beech so don`t get a Swinger FT unless it has metal lugs !i However, the Swinger FT legs should be from the same bin.

I say get a Champion FT, use it till you find or trade for a drop FT !i It will sound very close if not the same !i

Cool1

Thanx