Snares I Need!
A Slingerland Rolling Bomber. Back during WWII, the government only allowed 10% metal in nonessential items. All the major drum manufactures started substituting wood parts for metal. Only Slingerland made complete drum sets with heads that were tunable top and bottom; the other companies switched to tacked on bottom heads. The Bombers used rosewood lugs, and had very fair lines. To my eye, they are the best looking WWII era drums.
A Slingerland Radio King. They had 2 types of shells--3 ply and steam bent 1 ply. I'd like a 1 ply with the clamshell strainer. Or the traditional 3-point strainer with the Radio King snare bridges would be cool too. I'd like a deeper model with dual Beavertail lugs (separate top and bottom) like the one pictured.
gladstone snare A Billy Gladstone. He only made 40 snares, so I'd "settle" for an Arnie Lang replica. (Arnie was one of Billy's students. He now builds replicas modled from an original he got from Billy. The snare on the left is one of his replicas.) I find the gold lacquer particularly appealing--and it was one of the colors Billy used. See Steve Mawell's Billy Gladstone page for more info on this fantastic drum builder/percussionist/inventor.
gladstone snare A Pearl Symphonic. I'd like one becuase they have multiple snare strainers, with three different snares: light cable, heavy cable, and wire. Choose any comination therein--way adjustable. This isn't the first snare to offer multiple strainers. Ludwig did it in the early 40s on their Twin Sensitive model.
The original Tama Artsar line had birch shells, with inner and outer plies of cordia wood. These came stock with an Artstar kit, or could be ordered separately through the Mastercraft line.

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