The Slingerland Radio King snare drum is one of the most sought after snare drums on the vintage market. The drum came in a variety of sizes, including the extremely rare 4 x 14 that is pictured here. The shell is stamped September 1941, but the badge indicates a much later date. I suspect it was shelved as war broke out. Be bop drummers favored this size and after the war it became quite popular with Gretsch and Ludwig offering their own versions. Over the years, the 4 x 14 size has gone in and out of drum catalogs as interest in these drums has fluctuated.

Slingerland, like many if its competitors, tried to offer a snare drum to fit everyone's budget.

And all the better if that drum could, in some way, be associated with the Radio King name. Thus the Student
Model Radio King.

Actually, it's not a Radio King at all. Unlike the Radio King, the shell for this drum was made of 3 ply. It also sports the less expensive Rapid Snare Strainer.

This drum is finished in a Brown duco lacquer.

Between 1990-1994, Slingerland was distributed by HSS (Hohner).

There were 3 different series, the Spirit series,the Artist series, and the Lite series. The Artist and the Spirit series were made offshore, while the Lite series were all maple drums made by Jasper Wood Products in Indiana.

This snare drum is from the Spirit Series. This drum is new old stock. It's never been tuned, much less played.

The Radio King snare drum has been a staple of the Slingerland company for years. This particular model has a solid brass shell with brass hoops to boot. The model was advertised as “the drum with the solid brass hoop with no sound distorting center bead.”

This was a not so subtle dig at the competition, which was the Ludwig Super 400 which did have a center bead through the shell. Unfortunately for Slingerland, the Ludwig 400 reached a higher level of popularity and this model has languished on the vintage market.

This particular model was offered, as far as I can tell, for only one year - 1979. It's unique feature of having 12 lugs for the top head and 6 for the bottom was not a success.

There was a Buddy Rich model, but only in the 4 x 14 size. It also had the TDR strainer rather than the more common zoomatic strainer.

The Super Sound King was Slingerland's attempt to make "the most responsive snare drum in the world."

The drum made it's first appearance in 1967 and stayed in their catalog until 1976. It was the only Slingerland Snare drum to use the Dual Super Snare Strainer.

This two strainer lay out allowed the drummer to adjust either side of the snare wires separately. One knob was used to adjust the tension of the snare wires.

This drum was Slingerland's answer to the Ludwig Super Sensitive, the Camco Super 99, and the Rogers Dynasonic Snare Drum.

This was the last Slingerland Snare Drum to bear the Gene Krupa name. The model was made between 1963 and 1977 and in 1976 the Gene Krupa nameplate was dropped.

This is a unique drum because it's new old stock. It has never been tuned, much less played. It has been sitting in a music shop in southern Illinois for some 40 years until I came across it.

The solid steam bent maple shell of this drum was the state of the art in drum manufacturing at the time. Unfortunately, the lever on the famous "Clamshell Strainer" was not very sturdy and cracked under stress.

Nevertheless, this is a marvelous sounding drum and an excellent example of the golden age of the American Drum Company.

This model was the flagship wood snare for the Slingerland Drum Company during the 1960's and 70's. It has a solid maple shell and comes with a zoomatic strainer, which replaced the old clam shell strainer from earlier times. The drum also has brass stick saver hoops as standard.

When Buddy Rich became a Slingerland endorser in the 60's, this drum was referred to as the Buddy Rich Artist model. The drum is wrapped in the very beautiful Blue Agate Pearl finish. This finish was quite popular and a number of kits and snare drums were sold in this wrap.

This drum has a solid maple shell and comes with the famous super strainer, also known as the "Clamshell strainer". The extension levers on these snare strainers tended to crack very easily.

This drum has the brass oval badge that was on all Slingerland drums from 1928 until the early 1940's. It also has the famous Radio King strainer.

This drum was available with a choice of chrome or nickel plating and it came in two sizes, 7 x 14 or 8 x 14. The one piece steam bent shell was the gold standard for the wood shell of the time.