by Marc Patch - author of the book Vintage Stencil Drums Made In Japan
In the beginning of Japan’s rise of drum making in the early 60’s all of the major manufacturers in one form or another used Slingerland’s styling in the making of their own drums. Some of these companies were simply inspired and a few crossed the line into infringement, either way Slingerland just let it happen (probably because it costs a lot of money to chase companies on the other side of the planet). There are even stories of Slingerland letting representatives of Japanese drum companies walk through their factory to see how they produced drums. Little did they know at Slingerland that Japan would be the demise of many American drum companies, especially their own.
Essentially drums are just wood and metal with plastic heads, but it’s in the nuance of the presentation that defines each company. What I have attempted to do is show where the inspiration came from in some of the individual parts of these drums and overall presentation.
The most common signature pieces of hardware copied were their lugs. Several companies took a stab at recreating Slingerland’s early “cigar” snare lugs, these being: Fuji, Hoshino, Pearl, and Sakae, but more notably was what Rob Cook calls the 1955 lugs. Actually introduced by Slingerland in 1954 these lugs were probably the greatest representation of Art Deco on a drum and were the only design they used throughout the rest of Slingerland’s run. Four of the top five Japanese manufacturers (Hoshino, Pearl, Sakae, and Star) made their own rendition of the snare and tom lugs, (the bass drum lug styling seemed to be somewhat less inspired, but still somewhat similar).
Slingerland’s introduction of Triple-Flanged Hoops in 1955 (more famously known as Stick-Saver hoops) were copied by all 5 of the MIJ stencil companies, again with their own twist, with Star actually calling theirs “Stick-Saver”, something that Slingerland wasn’t even doing at the time. These hoops accomplished the same task, they either curved inward or rolled over inward making them much easier on the sticks during rimshots.
In 1964 Slingerland introduced the Zoomatic strainer, it was just in time to be a source of inspiration, again most commonly by Star, who introduced their version in their 1965 catalog, but soon were followed by Pearl and Sakae as well.
Slingerland’s square tom mounts (which were part of the Ray McKinley tom holder system that dated back to 1947) were also copied by Pearl, Sakae, and Yamaha.
The lesser seen shells were still copied as well, mostly the three ply shell with reinforcement rings. The difference was in the wood type with Slingerland using higher quality woods like: Mahogany, Poplar, and Maple in a Horizontal-Vertical-Horizontal pattern and Japan using Luan in a Vertical-Horizontal-Vertical pattern. Star also copied Slingerland’s three line chrome over brass shell, with the exact same pattern in chrome over steel. Note that by the end of the 60’s most Japanese companies were going to thicker 6 and 9 ply shells without reinforcement rings.
Even in the badge design they couldn’t seem to help themselves. Slingerland’s classic black oval badge over brass in relief from the 1960’s became the stock building block for dozens of brands, mostly coming out of the Star factory. “Quality Drums” was Slingerland’s tagline on the badge, Star’s most famous line was “World’s Supreme Quality” but also had “Finest Quality”, “The World’s Finest”, “Supreme Quality”, and even the ironic quality control failure of the Lotus brand: “FINEST QUALITY”.
Brand names were not immuned to being Slingerlandesque either, most notably: Swingerland, Swingline, Swingerline, and Wonderland. Just say it really fast or just mumble it and people will think it’s a Slingerland!
Add all of that with the Sparkle, Pearl, and Satin wraps that were commonplace with all the drum companies, it made these drums quite convincing copycats.
The most noticeable difference wasn’t the looks or sound, it was the price tag.
In 1971 the minimum wage was $1.60. So a kid working part-time (20 hours per week), saving every penny, would have to work at least 5 months to own a new Slingerland, but would only have to work 2 ½ months for the same looking drums from Japan with a brand name. Department store prices from Ward’s, Sears and Penney’s were half the retail prices for the same drums. When you are a kid there is a big difference between working 5 months and working just one to get new drum set.
Looking back to the time when Japan ventured into the market, Slingerland was definitely one of the big dogs, if not the biggest, and for good reason, they were solid, great sounding, played by Gene and Buddy, beautiful, and absolutely worthy of inspiration (even to the point of theft). To this day, these “copycat” drums capture a whole era of style and sound and musical culture, and without a doubt, a pure tribute to Slingerland.