Tiger pearl - Page 1 - Vintage Drum Forum

Just noticed the new article on the wraps. Another spectacular job.

Something I've noticed regarding the tiger pearls...(I've posted this before on another forum...)

It seems the red tiger pearl from the black silver badge era is different the the stuff from the black gold badge era. The earlier version looks like the swatch and drums in the catalogs. The '70s version has silverish stiations and the black lines are thinner.

On a related note, my yellow tiger pearl snare is a different shade of yellow than my set. I didn't get them together. My set, and the Buddy Rich snare on this site look like all the other YT I've seen...my snare, which is also shown here, is a lighter yellow. Anyone every seen that lighter shade before???

Did Slingerland do different versions of the white tiger? I have some '70s drums, and have had some of the later knock -offs using the original pearl...the pattern was like the '70s red tiger. Was there a '60s version with the broader and more muted stripes? Thanks, Rich

[COLOR="Navy"]Rich:

Thank you very much. And yes, absolutely, you know vintage Slingerland well. Do I recall correctly that you owned a Red Tiger kit back in the day? If so, you would know extra well.

There was actually a great example of early 70's Red Tiger at last May's Chicago Show, don't know if you were maybe there to see it. Here's a picture I took; it had the characteristics you describe. The differences are subtle from a distance, but very clear close up.

The distinction between 1968 - 1970 Red Tiger versus the later 1970 - 1973 version is a good example of differences in production runs of a product that is basically made by hand. The artisan mixed the plastic proportions and then swirled them a little differently.[/COLOR]