lots of help here .........................

the largest zephyr lugged 14x16" listed in the 1939 wfl catalog, that i have found so far,,Yes Sir

Thanks guys!

The catalogs don't go up to the years I need though...right on the verge! The snare that came with the kit has the super early P-83 with the single line of holes and the slightly larger lever arm that turns up. Ludwig book says that strainer came out in 1941....so I am thinking this kit is somewhere slightly after that. That would still be the Aluminum badge right?

It was originally a Blue/Silver DUCO finish...but someone destroyed that and rewrapped it in some sort of horrible marble looking kitchen cabinet liner. Of course they sanded off the original finish before they did that....and lost the badges in the process. The 11 and 13 inch toms are both double tension....but club date style center mounted zephyr lugs. No bearing edges to speak of! Just FLAT! The bass drum is single tension....with the little guide guys...no lug casings.

Clip on spurs. Speed Master bass drum pedal and hi-hat stand. Hoop mount WFL muffler. Snare stand is solid rust! All the original calf heads except for the snare...which has modern plastic heads.

Cool kit.

All drums have maple interiors and exteriors....which obviously means it was a painted finish. I know rewrapping it is going to make the heads fit tight...but...I figure it probably won't see much action (if any), and if it did, the drums I would play would be the 26/13/Snare and the 16 inch floor I am looking for...and in that case I would get the Aquarian American Vintage heads for those drums so that I could actually hit them....so fitting the heads shouldn't matter for display purposes.

Plus at the end of the day....I think it would sure look cool in an "Antique WMP" finish with some Ludwig repro badges...or who knows...maybe I will drop the bones for some Damen Ave WFL badges! I just don't care to go through the whole "Duco recreation" process. Its hard enough to get a solid paint job done on that Slingy!

-Ad

Hey Adam. I might have your match...This tom is too beat up for me to use as is, but I have enough projects going where I didn't want to restore a non-matching tom. A 14x16 floor tom, with--I think--the 48-52 keystone badge. This one is still the original blue silver duco...at least, the paint that's left is. It's drilled for 3 floor tom leg mounts, which I don't know if it should be or not. (It came as a floor tom with some Slingerlands I bought a while back, and the guy said he thought it had a tom cradle and not legs...) The drum is missing some of the clips, but has both hoops and all lugs and tension rods. All the existing hardware seems sound, but has it's share of surface rust. The inside is in okay shape, but looks like it had some moisture exposure...(I should try to make it sound better, but hey...) If ever a drum needed a rewrap, it's this one!

Troy

Looks pretty good!

What do you want for it? Please PM me!

Also...whats the hole spacing for the leg mounts?

Thanks!

Adam

I have a similar set, full of anomalies as well.

'41 strainer and Zephyr lugs, ..... that seems kosher

An un-cataloged 4 up, 4 down staggered-lug 11x7 tom ..... weird

(There is a pic of one in the Image Gallery somewhere... that member hasn't found his tom in any catalogs either the last time I talked to him)

Bass, Tom, and Snare have the 48-52 Damen Ave. Keystone badge .... weird with the Zephyr lugs

Bass is 26x14 and has 20 lugs ... can't find a separate lug bass with Zephyrs in the catalogs

My best guess is a 41 set even with the '48 to '52 badges on them.

Maybe they were built in '41 and badged in '48

These drums have always had Zephyr lugs.... their edges are imprinted in the shells and I believe those lugs were long gone by '48.

Adam, is your bass 26x12 ? That seemed to be the depth for the single-tension bass drums.

Sounds like a great project, even with all the twists and turns involved. It seems that the 40s were a time with a lot of changes in ownership, lots of new hardware coming out, and the war "metal-saving models". Almost like, let's build a drum, grab some hardware and badges from here and there, throw them all up in the air, and whatever lands closest to the shell is what we put on it. I'm exaggerating of course, but trying to figure out the puzzle sometimes makes me think that way.

I did this once. I had a 26 13 with 6.5 wood snare drum. I actually managed to find a 16x16 wfl zephyr lug floor tom. I thought I would totally make this kit cool again as my set was originally a DUCO. Since WFL drums back then used glitter glass sparkles, I bought green glass and intended to have a friend wrap them for me. He did the job but it was tough as the glitter glass was hard to cut and it was pretty brtittle.

The problwm I had was that after i got the drums back, I never took into account that the shells were slightly bigger because they never had a wrap on them. I had a wicked tim trying to reinstall heads and it put lots of pressure on the brittle wrap. I eventually sold off the kit as is and washed myself clean of the experience. I am not trying to discourage you but remember about the shell thickness and keep in mind that 40's WFL drums don't command a lot of interest even though I love them. I would just hate to see you put a lot of money into them because there probobly won't be a big return if you decide to sell. Fortunately I got mine for next to nothing when I did it si the loss was not so great. Good luck!

Definitely not looking to make a buck on these. I got em for about $150 in their current state. I am looking to put them together for special occasions. Halloween/Weddings/Sessions where it makes sense to have an old school sound or vibe.

Kevin, I have a very similar bass drum to the one you have. It is a Damen Ave badge Zephyr lug 14x26 in WMP. 20 separate tension lugs. It kills in the studio as a woofer with the original calf heads nice and med/low. I attached a pic of it being used in front of my 70's Sliny in the studio a few months back. Check it out! I have no idea what year it is from. I always just figured late 40's.

That offset lug tom is nuts. My drums are the exact same only with club date style lugs on the toms. Good to know it actually would be correct to put some Damens on all of my drums!

Now the real question: What year are our drums from???

My single tension drum is definitely a 14 inch deep drum...same as my double tension drum, but it only has 8 "lugs" instead of 10.

I know heads are going to fit on my snare when it is rewrapped. I threw some wrap around it and tried the heads and it was fine....even with a massive seem from the wrap not being cut to size. As far as the rest of the drums go....we will see!

I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to get it running. It isn't like I am planning on selling the kit anyway...I just think it would be sweet to have a floor tom to use....and I probably wouldn't use the 11 inch tom.

-Adam

Hey Adam...I sent a pm.

Troy