The snare drum is COB thin shell. It has original rods washers plus solid die cast hoops. Also original damper. The lugs are soliid die cast with brass inserts and foam padded. The wires are original with 7 strands missing. The strainer and butt work like a dream only the butt side is spring loaded. The wires have some missing but sounds great crisp and as good as any drum out there today or from yester year. These carlton snare drums are truly great build drums with fab looks. Some more pics ive taken. Still needs a full deep clean.

Here are a few more pics.

Do a magnet test yet? If it sticks=steel, if not, then either aluminum or brass, most likely brass.

...make sure to test the hoops/etc as well.

Yes Trilok done all the testing. The shell is COB the hoops are solid die cast. The build on these carlton drums is top notch. The snare system works like a dream and is indeed a fine example of great build drums from the 60's. Gotta say my favourite era for English, American and Japanese drums. Plus other manufacturers of the day.

Hello , I too have recently bought a very nice Carlton Super 20 (wood shell) , but the strainer doesn't seem to work properly. I see you mention that the strainer and butt are spring loaded. Do you mean that both of them have some sort of spring mechanism? As far as I can understand, mine only has a spring in the butt part and it works well. The problem is the strainer side. When I set it to the "off" position, it moves ok but for some reason, it initially (very slightly) lifts the snares but when the lever reaches the end of its movement, the snares get pushed back to the head. I noticed that the threaded section that is screwed to the strainer side is a little bent and maybe this is the main reason for the snares being pushed back...It would therefore be useful to know if this could be the only reason or if there is also a spring missing from the strainer side...Any comment is welcome...many thanks

Hello, this is my first post. Hello everybody. Thanks for the great info discussed in the forum..The only vintage snare drums I am a little familiar with are the Supraphonics and Acrolites, I've had (and still have) a few of them..Great and easy (...and no parallel action involved!)

Hello Drum Fl to the forum......The carlton snare you have is absolutely fine. The snare action as you described is common and ill explain. Firstly only the butt section is spring loaded. On the strainer side that is not spring loaded. You should also see on butt and strainer 2 black rubbers both ends. The reason for snare action working as you described is because when your lever goes to the off position the wires contact with the gate on hoop causes them to go back up to the snare head. If your snare head is stretched obviously more tension is needed so the clearance is affected. The cure is a new snare head. I have two carlton snare drums. The COB one has a used snare head that needs too much tension causing the clearance to be affected which does the same as yours. Remedy brand new head. The other carlton wood shell has a calf head original 60's head which is basically flat so the hoop has more clearance and the wires in the off position don't touch the gate. Most other snare drums have a better gate like prems john grey ajax etc etc. So basically you need a new snare head. If you got any other issues with your carlton let me know. As for the rod on end of wires straighten it out as that can affect the action plus make sure you have the little black rubbers both ends. When carlton made these snare drums the gate was not a great design, so the probs you described happen which for me as a restorer are simple fixes.One last note to prove my point is to change snare hoop for another like a premier and you will notice your snares will work perfect as the premier gate is square not angled like the carlton. Ill get pics together to explain this point....sean

Hello seantdrums , thank you very much for the detailed information and suggestions. The two black rubbers are present in both ends. You are perfectly right the problem is due to the metal strip where the wires are attached touching the gate. The resonant head (Ambassador) is supposed to be new (I cannot be sure however) but I have noticed that compared to an old Ludwig xthin (broken unfortunately..) there is quite a difference in the size of the drum head rim and collar, the Ludwig is much thinner and I think a similar head would help keeping the hoop clearance larger, same as what you describe about the vintage head in your wood Carlton...In the next days I will not be able to dedicate time to work on this snare but in the meantime if you could suggest a reso head more appropriate I would be very grateful...and regarding the rod on end of wires to be straightened do you think It can be done using (very gently..) something like a manual vise or you would suggest some other methods?

Thank you very much