Doc, you have answered several of my posts in the past on other forums. You have already analyzed this particular Slingy set I am about to ask you about, but alas, there is new a wrinkle.

I posted this query at drumforum.org but have had no feedback. Maybe you can help me out.

Here goes:

I was doing a head change on my faithful, goon-sized Slingy tubs when I took a hard second look at the bearing edges and realized that there appears to be more than the 5-plies I believed they were built out of. Pic attached.

So, I took a look at all the drums in the set and sure enough, they appear to be what I see is an eight-ply lay-up - with maple exteriors too, as opposed to the common mahogany exterior for wrapped Slingys. The set is wrapped in the Silver Silk finish.

No thin, thick variations - all the plies are one thickness. Extremely heavy - too heavy for a Set-O-Matic to not sag.

Here is what I know about these bruisers, which were a 600 dollar BIN on EBay about a year or so ago:

- Serial numbers for the set range from 453,XXX to 476,XXX with black and silver Niles badges.

- Two 26 x 16 kicks - one virgin, 13x13 mounted, 14x14 and 16x16 floor toms

- No factory mounts on toms or floor toms (previous owner used all 80s Tama mounts)

- Single pair of bass drum spurs as opposed to the standard two sets per drum for 26" bass drums

The drums were diagnosed by Dr. CJW back on the DCI forum as being from 1980.

A snippet of his assessment:

The Silver Silk finish, separate tension mounted toms in “square” sizes such as your 13x13, and bass drums in the deeper 16-inch depth were all introduced by Slingerland in the middle of 1979 (officially June 1979). Drums in these deep sizes did not get the “Magnum” designation until the middle of 1981 (officially June 1981). Now drums in your serial range were coming out mainly in the latter 1980 into early 1981 time frame. So you have drums in deep sizes as offered in the 1979 catalog, but really just before the beginning of the Magnums.

Now, I have a bunch of new questions... as usual.

Did Slingerland farm out for their mega-depth shells in the late 70's/ early 80's?

The two drums that fall under the standard size category - 14x14 and 16x16 floors - are also built with the mystery shells.

I would speculate that when Slingerland quietly introduced the mega-depth sizes in their '79 catalogue they didn't have the molds to build them in-house just yet. I further rationalize this because Slingy used Jasper shells for their Cut-A-Way marching toms, according to Rob Cook's book.

Am I close?

Thanks so much