The Sad Story of Slingerland
I’m 10 years old and it’s my birthday. I am really excited because, well, it’s my birthday and I’m a 10 year-old boy!
There’s one, large package I still need to open. This is it — this is the big one! I tear it open, and inside is…luggage?
I was a bit confused, but then I saw on the case a company name I recognized.
The company was Slingerland, and no, it’s not a luggage company.
According to Wikipedia, Slingerland was founded in 1912 by Henry Heanon Slingerland. He was gambling in a card came aboard a boat crossing lake Michigan and he won, of all things, a correspondence school of music.
He opened a music school in Chicago and soon began manufacturing musical instruments. Mainly banjos and guitars. In 1926 he began manufacturing snare drums. In 1940 the company switched to making only percussion instruments.
I’m sure you’re starting to figure out that birthday present I opened 52 years ago. It wasn’t luggage, it was a drum case, and inside was a green-sparkle 5 ½ by 14 inch snare drum, complete with a stand, sticks, and a practice pad.
Up until that point I’d been using one of those inexpensive, tin kids’ sets you’d find in the 5 & 10 cents store. This drum was the most beautiful things I’d ever seen (I wasn’t interested in girls yet).
That was in 1969. Slingerland had grown their drum offerings considerably by then. Their most famous product line back in the 30s and lasting through 1957 was the Radio King series of drums.
During World War II metal was needed for the war effort, so Slingerland began manufacturing drums with more wooden parts in place of what had been metal. These drums were called the Rolling Bomber line, and are very collectible today.
In the 1960s and 70s a lot of famous drummers used Slingerland, including jazz great Buddy Rich, Chicago’s Danny Seraphine, Weather Report’s Peter Erskine, Lynrd Skyrnd’s Artimus Pyle, Kansas’ Phil Ehart, and Elton John’s drummer, Nigel Olsson just to name a few.
About that time, Ludwig, a competing drum company, began producing “Vistalite” drums which were made of clear plastic. Slingerland began making the same kind of drums but was immediately served a cease-and-desist letter from Ludwig claiming copywrite infringement. Since Slingerland’s foray into clear drums was so short-lived, clear Slingerlands are also very sought-after by collectors.
I was attending community college in the late 70s and the school had a blue sparkle Slingerland set, so even though I had long-since traded-in my beloved green sparkle snare drum for a chrome drum of a different brand, my connection with the Slingerland drum company continued under the wise tutelage of the Centralia College band director, Dr. Carolyn Neff.
Unfortunately, times changed, other drum companies appeared and began to chip away at Slingerland’s market share, and in the early 80s the company folded.
It was purchased by Gibson for short time, but according to an article in Drum Magazine, there was a lot of mismanagement at the company, and a lack of understanding of the drum world.
For example, one ex-Gibson marketer recalls a meeting at which clueless management asked, “Why do drummers need all those sizes [referring to toms]? Just make one kit in one size. That’s all we need.”
In May of 2018 Gibson declared bankruptcy, and the future of Slingerland was once again uncertain.
The reorganized Gibson, however, has now sold the Slingerland name to DW (Drum Workshop) which makes high-end drums and is planning on releasing a new line of Slingerland drums, so maybe the name will live on after all.
When I graduated from Centralia College Dr. Neff found an old 1940s vintage Slingerland snare drum in the closet of the band room. It was a deep snare, measuring the standard 14” in diameter but instead of the standard 5 ½” it was 7” deep. It was a bit worse for wear and Dr. Neff said it looked as if it needed a good home, and would I like it?
I jumped at the chance. I repainted it black and used it in that configuration for years. About 20 years ago I had it professionally refinished and all the metal was copper-plated to match one of my nicer drum kits.
It is a fantastic sounding drum, and one I’ll never sell, so regardless of what happens to the Slingerland Drum Company, My Slingerland Radio King snare drum will always be a part of my life, and you can’t beat that!
