Slingerland Kit Info

Xeno2020

New Member
Wondering if anyone can help out here, I'm just curious to find out some info on my drum kit. Its a 5 piece Slingerland kit that I purchased new from a guitar shop sometime around 1998. There's no metal badges anywhere on the shells, just the sticker pictured on the attached photo and another sticker on each shell that says "Made in USA". From what I've been finding online Slingerland stopped making the "Spirit" line in the USA sometime in the 80's and sent production to Taiwan where they switched material to luan. I'm not entirely sure what my shells are made of, they have some sort of black liner inside and the exposed rim edge kind of looks like MDF board. Also of note, the tom mounting hardware isnt the standard Pearl type, but rather a single double tom holder in the bass drum with geared (not sure if thats the right term) L-rods.

I can certainly get more photos if anyone would like to see them. I'm just curious for some history on where/when these might have been made and any other info to go along with them. It seems from reading up online that as soon as the Slingerland name was sold and production moved out of the country that quality really declined. The curious thing to me is that these have the "Made in the USA" sticker on them.

Thanks in advance for any insight.
 

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Hi and welcome Xeno2020 to DW. Yes they were American made when Slingerland was under Gibson's control. 4-Piece Jazz, 5-Piece Classic and 6-Piece Studio kits. Base drum head with the name Sprite on top of the traditional smaller Slingerland signature.
 
We definitely need more pics to make an accurate identification. Please show us the tom holder, the "Made In The USA" sticker, bearing edges, and bass drum spurs.

And welcome to the site!

GeeDeeEmm
 
Yes the Made in USA sticker let's see it.

The original Spirit series were U.S. made and good drums. They had three ply shells with no re-rings. They were a thin-shell alternative to the 5-ply top of the line Slingerlands. The line didn't last long at all, maybe a couple of years, after which they built them in Asia, at which point they became sub-standard. After the original Slingerland went out of business in 1986(?) they became a low end Asian made line.

The good Spirit shells are easy to tell... look inside and they're not luan.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone, Ill definitely grab a few more photos and get them up here. Hopefully this weekend (my kit resides at my bass players house)......
 
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