I recently bought a late 50's WFL kit which included a 5.5x14 classic snare. I don't know the exact year of the kit as the interior of the shells have all been painted white at some stage. The strainer on the snare had been replaced, I imagine early on as the replacement strainer looks to be 50s and is similar to a P-83 (holes down the bottom) but with three attachment points (two at the top and one below), none of which line up with the fixing points of the original strainer. I mistakenly bought a P83 strainer thinking that was what I needed but now find that the original fixing points are much closer together (35mm) which, based on my research, would indicate the strainer was a P-87 like this:
The butt plate is the original WFL branded P-32 style.
My question is, should I:
a) Leave the current strainer as is. It's serviceable although the action is very light
b) Buy a P-87 strainer (perhaps the one EBay above), although I understand replacement snare wires are very hard to find, but I'm not sure if that's the case when you have the P-32 style butt plate rather than the P-34
c) Buy a new strainer that has adjustable hole spacing such as that produced by Inde drums, or the Dunnett R4 and fit it to the holes for the original strainer, leaving the butt plate as is?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts
