Full Restoration Vintage Slingerland Radio King Snare Drum 

Beautiful refinishing and the sound is full and rich !

I think those shells were better served with that throw off in my opinion. My Radio King (a late 50's Gene Krupa model) still had the "clamshell" style throw off. It works o.k., but it's a little janky and not as reliable as the one on your drum, although it might be a little more sensitive due to the extended snares. That's some snare bed they used to cut. You did a beautiful job sir, and your whole kit sounds phenomenal. Kudos.

Fantastic job.

This was actually a video about drum restoration. A great satisfaction to watch

'AWESOME!' Never had a kit, but always loved the classy sound of Slingerland drums. You kept at it & kept at it and brought a symbol of good old master craftsmen drum building, back from the dead. Excellent job.

I see so many butchered drums on ebay that it breaks my heart... but seeing this lifts my spirits...

I really like it mate. I like the way it came out patinated, because you hand finished it. So it looks smart but the finish is not out of step with the age of the drum. Good investment of $$$ and time!

Great job man! When I saw the first wipe of dye I told myself, I said, "self that's red mahogany and it's going to look great in that finish."

You are tenacious! Great job! I love the fat, dry sound of the Radio King Snare drums.

Sir, you’ve done some justice to this piece of art. Screams love at every rimshot. You’re a good man.

Snare turned out really nice, sounds good

Great! Only a vintage lover can do this! So, go and play it in the world!

Beautiful restoration! I’m glad you took the time and effort to refinish it and not recover it! I had one of these that I had to sell due to hard economic times. Still hurts to this day!

I like how you made it seem very manageable and didn't have a full workshop of tools. Looks like a nice piece of passion.

Really nice job but one major time saving tip. To strip any finish from wood including nitro-cellulose lacquer use a draw knife. Faster than chemicals, sandpaper, wire wheels etc. and it won't damage the wood. Chemicals can compromise the wood integrity and possibly glued joints and are way toxic. I've stripped guitar finishes, table tops, furniture of all sorts with a draw knife dragged with the grain of the wood. Even a cheap kitchen knife, as long as it's sharp. The longer the knife the better. Try it on a not so valuable piece of wood to get used to working with it at first.

Oh man, that kit sounds sooo sweet, when you hitted the snare I was "OMG" and then you did the rest of the kit... I was certainly blown away. Great job and an absolute glorious to hear and watch video. Thanks! 😀

'I've been dying to do this...' then you dye the drum, cracked me up! Also excellent job, great to watch

Absolutely incredible! It turned out amazing and sounds wonderful! I had a 1970’s Slingerland kit from 77-80. Sure wish I still had it! Paid $150 with the cymbals. Ha

😁👍👍👍👍 Sound great & now looks so beautiful + rich in history 😁👍👍👍

Nunca estive tão perto de uma Slingerland! Obrigado! De Sapucaia do Sul, RS, Brasil.

Beautiful! I owned and played one of those for 25 years, and have just found another one to replace it! (Excited) Great job on the restoration.

Absolutely beautiful. Fantastic job,well done,sounds as good as it looks.

I just finished restoring a 50s era Radio King. It was painted blue and I think that was original but if someone can chime in and tell me different I'm all ears. The paint has small flakes here and there but I cleaned and waxed over it and left it original. Lugs and rims shined up nicely with Brasso. The throw was missing, so I put on a Ludwig that I had laying around till I can get an original . Most throws cost more than I paid for this drum. Got Aquariun Vintage heads on it. Can't wait to here it. Oh, great vid by the way!

Sounds fabulous. Great job 👏🏻

Wow, that snare is gorgeous 😍!

Fantastic job on that snare drum,you can't beat a vintage American drum set in sound and mojo

That RK sounds awesome, and thank you for showing your great drumming and drum restoration skills.

Looks and sounds great...Nice job!

Great work on the snare! Kit sounds awesome!

Incredible job! BUT...I kept worrying about you scratching that nice table you were working on.

Thank you for the video. Enjoyable adventure in restoration. Nice work!

Beautiful sounding drum! It was definitely worth the effort. You could easily improve the sound at bit by using a calf head, that would make the shell really "bark" when comping! This is what I expect from a radio king and if you don't carry it out of the house, it won't detune all the time. Great job!!!

Great great job. Congratulations 🎉

man! what a incredible job you did

Excellent work! Looks great

That’s easily one of the best sounding snare/kit I’ve heard! Snare looks and sounds incredible. Thanx for sharing!

God Bless your hard work, it was worth wild ! Thanks for posting!

Great job on the radio king slingerland drum.and you finished it off with some remo coated ambassadors.🥁👍

Unbelievable! I wanna do that myself now.

Sounds phenomenal!

you sir are a genius! That is an amazing drum. Bravo!!!!!!

Beautiful work

Beautiful dude I did the same thing on my Rogers xp8 and my 1960s Stewart kit great video I love it!!!

great video!! good work! RKs are just great... did a complete build my self from a leftover (found in an abandoned warehouse) 60's RK shell that was not routed down yet.. BIG job. But I got it in the end. 14x6,5.. love it.

Amazing hard work … looks great!

Man! This was beautiful to watch!

Great job man! Looks sooo much better!

This is really really pretty

Awesome work!

Excellent work! The red mahogany finish was common on drums from that era. Good choice!

Jeff Porcaro used a Radio King Snare Drum on Toto's 1st 4 albums.

I’m proud of you for using paint stripper. I was going to turn off the video if you started by sanding. Just a tip for next time if you ever do this again, after you finish sanding use a grain filler. It’ll help the wood pop a little more. Also one coat of stain and then a light sanding will help bring out a little more Wood grain. Then a second coat usually isn’t really needed. Also for a little extra fun mix a little black in with your die and fade the edges a little bit. Turned out pretty good but that particular wood restaurant really designed to look pretty. It was poor grain quality with good sound quality meant to be covered.

I've stripped many a drum with paint stripper. After the paint stripper simply soak steel wool in a bowl of lacquer thinner and scrub along the grain and that will take off 100% of any left over stain/clear coat/glue out of the wood in minutes with zero sanding necessary. just keep wiping with a paper towel as you go.

Wow man fantastic job! I also kind of liked the look of the snare when it was first unwrapped and just had small bits of 70 year old epoxy. I thought it looked cool almost like it was burned. Might have to try to recreate the same effect on a snare one day and just put some clear coat maybe over it. Im really new to working on drums but wanting to get into it. That red finish is amazing though ive been looking to get ahold of a drum that has a really similar finish for a little while now.

素晴らしいサウンド！！

Very nice.

As a fifty plus year refinisher,I would have suggested that after you used the paint stripper,that you could have saved countless hours of sanding,especially on the exterior side of the shell,by starting the sanding process with an electric vibrating sander (jitterbug),beginning with 220 grit sandpaper,then 320 0r 400 grit,then going to even some finer grits. and 800 grit would have been my choice of grit between the tung oil layers.You have a less chance of damaging the dye layer ,as you complete the oiling layers. Just a friendly suggestion,thank you.A wonderful drum,by the way! The tung oil was a wise choice for tonal quality also.

Whaaaaat. That rack tom tuning though. Dayummm.

Nice job! I can't believe it started out looking so bad.

awesome

Sure is a nice drum

When I was in High School I had a Radio King set (14X20, 14X14, 8X12, & 5.5X14 RK snare -wish I still had them). My snare had an extended strainer and snare butt so only the snare wires touched the head. Were there 2 types/models of the RK snare drum?

Great job on the RK snare, I have one from the Gene Krupa era 1954 RK white pearl , I need some hardware parts, can you tell me were you ordered your parts? Thanks so much for sharing !

Can i ask why you chose to go with tung oil and not a laquer? It looks fabulous but i would think it would wear off over time.

Looks beautiful. I am currently converting a 1940s 15” Slingerland marching snare into a 7 1/2” snare with new antique white marine pearl wrap. I just wondered why you didn’t wrap your snare to match the rest of the kit? As it was originally wrapped, the outer face of the shell would have been inferior grade veneer, never intended to be seen. Still turned out great though.

Does the sound change?

Hi, love your video and your snare. Can I ask you how you approached the inside of the snare?. I'm doing a restoration of my mine, the inside of the snare is a bit grubby and needs some TLC, but I don't know how to approach the inside. Any advice would be great, thanks.

Wow

After the final coat of Tung Oil, did you buff or polish it with anything? Seems like between each coat, it was not very glossy; after the final coat to when you stated to put the hardware back in, it went from satin to high gloss? Just Tung oil for the final, or did you buff it to high gloss? Thanks!

Nice video, but it needs more "thumbs up"... /s

Why Remo's skin and not Evans? I always had this doubt

I enjoyed that a lot. :-) If I may ask, what dye exactly did you use for this?

What makes you think it's a Slingerland?

The kick and toms sound warm and "thuddy" Are they mahogany? The new color of the snare is very similar to the Gretsch color called "rosewood gloss" which is what i have. cool video my man

is there a reason why you'd go through the pain of paint remover if you planned on sanding anyway ? Honest question here. Nice work !

I would've let it swim it a vat of acetone or paint thinner for a week xD

And you did that with no gloves!

Bad work, good snare.

I would have reassembled the drum on a towel and not the bare table top.

I’ll give you $100 bucks for it 😂😂

Angle grinder with a cup wire and a flap disk could have reduced the labor a lot

I think you are a better drummer than a restorer. The snare finish looks DIY. Sorry. For an old Slingerland better leave it to the pros. I do admire your passion passion for vintage gear though. Not a bad looking snare. Cheers