Interesting kit build underway

DrumWhipper

Member
So I made a post the other day about a new snare drum a guy built me. There is a little more to the story that I’d like to share about that.

I mentioned that he bid on a warehouse, won the bid, and found out the warehouse was loaded with drum parts. That warehouse was a former warehouse for Slingerland in Nashville. It is full of shells, hoops, and other parts needed to build drums.

He also bid on the Slingerland name at a later time, but was outbid on that by DW.

Now he has a warehouse full of parts and is building drums.

Obviously he can’t use the Slingerland name, and there are some specific parts he can’t use, but he can build drums with the shells and other certain parts in the factory.

This is all new/old stock stuff.

I said all of that to say this; He is in the process of building me a new kit. We selected the wrap and drum sizes this evening. Additional parts have been ordered as well.

I can in no way call this a Slingerland kit, but that is basically what it will be. All of the shells were constructed by Slingerland before they had their issues and the name was eventually sold to DW.

As far as sizes I’m going with a 22x18 kick drum, 13x9, 15x15, and 18x16 toms, and a 14x6.5 snare.

The drums should be completed before Christmas, so I’m anxious to see how they turn out.

Thanks for taking the time to read. I’ll update the thread with photos as much as I can!
 
Is it the same guy who bought all the unsold Conway Slingy sets a couple years ago? He was on here hawking his wares for a bit.
 
Is it the same guy who bought all the unsold Conway Slingy sets a couple years ago? He was on here hawking his wares for a bit.
I don’t believe it is him. Everything he has is in parts and not complete sets. All raw materials. He recently came into this.
 
Obviously he can’t use the Slingerland name, and there are some specific parts he can’t use, but he can build drums with the shells and other certain parts in the factory.

This is all new/old stock stuff.

I said all of that to say this; He is in the process of building me a new kit. We selected the wrap and drum sizes this evening. Additional parts have been ordered as well.

I can in no way call this a Slingerland kit, but that is basically what it will be. All of the shells were constructed by Slingerland before they had their issues and the name was eventually sold to DW.
Me being me, I'd take the lugs to a grinder & reshape them. That way they're Slingerland lugs, but not Slingerland lugs (if you catch my drift). ;)

I did this to a couple snare drums when I bought a whole pallet from a second hand store that was closing. The lugs were way too plain, so I "adjusted" them & they came out good.
 
Quick update. Things are moving along nicely. We should have the wrap next week.

We are building with the Conway era Keller shells.

I’ll have the following:

14x6.5 snare
13x9 rack tom
15x14 floor tom
18x16 floor tom
22x18 kick drum

They will have 2.3 mm hoops and all black nickel hardware.

Once they are complete I’ll get with my guy Kenny Sharretts to find a few different tuning ranges for the kit and make them sing.

I should have some photos in a few weeks.
 
Shells for my new kit are here! They are all NOS Conway era Slingerland (Keller) shells. Time to cut some bearing edges and drill some holes!

65CD8120-6B55-4537-AE10-88DFB197997A.jpeg
 
Forgive me, but if the everything is all, or mostly, new old stock Slingerland, why can you not call it a Slingerland kit?
 
Forgive me, but if the everything is all, or mostly, new old stock Slingerland, why can you not call it a Slingerland kit?
Because DW owns the Slingerland name. The guy building the drums purchased the warehouses that housed the previous era Slingerland materials. He attempted to purchase the Slingerland name also, but DW outbid him on that one. They got the name, he got the materials, so he can’t use the Slingerland name in his builds.
 
Because DW owns the Slingerland name. The guy building the drums purchased the warehouses that housed the previous era Slingerland materials. He attempted to purchase the Slingerland name also, but DW outbid him on that one. They got the name, he got the materials, so he can’t use the Slingerland name in his builds.
Right, I get that legally he can't sell them as Slingerlands. But what's to stop you from putting Slingerland badges and Slingerland head on them, once you get them?
 
Right, I get that legally he can't sell them as Slingerlands. But what's to stop you from putting Slingerland badges and Slingerland head on them, once you get them?
Absolutely nothing. With them being legitimate Slingerland shells people would have a very hard time calling them anything but Slingerland.
 
Great shells! I love the green Christmas sparkles over the picture as well. Adds tot he holiday Drummerworld vibe!
 
Absolutely nothing. With them being legitimate Slingerland shells people would have a very hard time calling them anything but Slingerland.
Unless you're actually using Slingerland hardware as well, I'd think it's a bit disingenuous.
 
Unless you're actually using Slingerland hardware as well, I'd think it's a bit disingenuous.
He has everything. I already have a snare from him that is all Slingerland.
 
That guy wouldn't happen to have any of the repro three point strainers that Slingerland made for their Radio King snares would he? They were accurate repros of the originals, not the repro three points that Gibraltar sells which are actually a 30's Ludwig and Ludwig copy, not the Slingerland three point.
He might. I’ll inbox you some contact information.
 
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