And so it begins...

This is going to be the first of (hopefully not too) many updates documenting my attempt to restore a mid-1960s Slingerland drum kit. I'm gonna try and keep this as layperson-friendly as possible, so bear with me if I overexplain things a bit. And if there's anything I don't explain enough or anything else you have questions about, feel free to ask! I write on here to help pass the time between customers at work, so any questions, comments, or colorful insults are welcome.

For reference, this is the kit in its current state:

And this is the listing for this variety of kit in Skingerland's 1965 catalog (note that my kit does not have the snare drum which originally came with it):

Now, to business:

PART 1 - HOLE-Y MOLEY

Order of business the first is the matter of the exposed holes on the drum shell. These come in two varieties which you can see together on the bass drum:

The large hole is there to accommodate a metal rod the two 12" tom-toms mount off of, and the smaller holes are to accommodate the bolts which attach the mounting hardware to the bass drum. The toms themselves have similar holes as well, but some of those are currently obscured by the mounting hardware the previous owner installed on them. Here's a particularly irksome example of that:

If only that mounting wasn't partially covering that hole, I could probably just leave it on and simply plug the exposed small holes. With the way it's positioned, though, that's not really an option. So now I'll have to remove the hardware and plug the big hole that hardware was covering in addition to the small holes I was gonna plug anyways.

I'm not particularly bothered that those drums won't have mounting hardware on them because I prefer to put those kinds of drums in freestanding snare drum stands (which just hold the drums in a claw sorta contraption). It's just an annoying extra bit of work that could have been avoided if the old owner had planned out his work a bit more.

C'est la vie.

Speaking of plugging holes, let me introduce you to one half of the hole-plugging crew:

These clips are meant to attach trim and panels to the bodies of cars (I think; I'm not really a car person), but I'm thinking there should be at least one variety of them in that pack which will plug up the smaller holes.

Famous last words, right?

As for the larger holes, I took the time to measure out the one on the bass drum:

It looks to be about a 7/8" diameter and 3/16" depth, give or take a bit for loose manufacturing tolerances and the shaky hands I held the tape measure with. For those, I think my best option is probably a set of grommets like these.

I'm a bit concerned that those might not quite fit, though. As far as I'm aware, those grommets are meant to be used on a flat surface. The drum shell (being a cylinder) is going to have a curve to it, so that could throw everything off. It may not be enough to make a big difference, but again, famous last words.

Oh, and I did only get the measurements of the hole on the bass drum today. It's still totally possible the larger holes on the toms have their own sets of dimensions. That's a problem for future me, though. I'll settle for just finding a solution for the bass drum for now.

PART 2 - GETTING (A)HEAD(S)

Drumheads are a bit of a rabbit hole. The amount of different choices available between different brands, number of plies, materials, coatings, and probably a bunch of stuff I forgot to list boggles the mind. As drummers develop and learn their sonic preferences, I think most eventually develop a stable of head combinations they like and tend to stick with those by and large. That's been my trajectory, at least. Before we get too deep into my headspace, though, take a look at this (note that the drum is flipped upside-down in this picture):

These are the heads that were on the 12" toms when I got them. The batter head (the drumhead that gets struck while playing) isn't anything too crazy - an Evans Hydraulic. It's got two layers of clear mylar polyester which (uniquely) have a bit of oil between them. This gives them a really thuddy, muffled sound. It's not what I'd choose to put on these drums, but everyone's got their own preferences.

What's odd here is the resonant head - specifically its brand.

Ludwig isn't in the drumhead business. Ludwig is a drum manufacturer. In fact, when this set was new, Ludwig was probably Slingerland's most prominent rival (Ringo played Ludwigs, and everyone wanted to be like Ringo.) I'm not sure if the previous owner put those on there to be ironic or if maybe he was strapped for cash (stock, manufacturer-brand drumheads are usually the option of last resort, but they're still better than nothing), but I thought it was kinda funny how that worked out.

As for what I'm planning:

What you see here are three Remo Coated Emperor drumheads (still in their boxes) and three Remo Coated Ambassador drumheads (there's two 12" heads on top of each other in one of the bags), the former being my choice for batter heads and the latter being my choice for resonant heads. Briefly, the Emperors are made of two plies of roughly-textured mylar and the Ambassadors are a single ply of the same. Sound-wise, they're pretty middle-of-the-road. The Emperor is on the lighter end of double-ply heads, so it's got the durability of two plies without sounding too muffled, and the Coated Ambassador is pretty much the Platonic Ideal of drumheads. (Did I use "Platonic Ideal" correctly? Here's hoping!) On balance, they're a bit more open and ringy than I generally prefer, but here's the thing: there's any number of ways to muffle a ringy drumhead. There isn't really any way to open up a drumhead whose baseline is too muffled.

That about wraps things up for now, I think. I haven't mentioned the 16" floor tom all that much today because it doesn't have extra holes in it like the other drums do. All it should really need is a change of heads (inb4 I've jinxed myself), which I think is probably gonna be the focus for the next update (or excuse me, "Drumpdate"; I really hope anyone who's still here really lets me have it in the comments for that mangling of the English language.)

Thank you for your time. I hope you've found this Drumpdate worthwhile and that I'll see you in the next one!

(I think that word's growing on me.)