In an effort to show what is less seen, I offer you another one of my favorites. This gold sparkle Apollo, which was made by Star in the early 1960’s, has so many things to love about it and gives a glimpse of what Star was doing in their early days.
The Apollo brand used at least three different manufacturers in the Japanese stencil era plus more in the Taiwan stencil era. This one was made by Star and part of the “World’s Supreme Quality” family. The main distributor of Apollo was the St. Louis Music Supply Company.
Starting with the shell, it was the standard for the early 60’s MIJ manufacturers, the three-ply Luan at about an 1/8” thick with reinforcement rings. The Star standard rolled over bearing edges gives this drum the perfect mix of resonance and clear warm tone. Note that Star would glue a square piece of Luan behind the strainer and butt plate to prevent any warping of the shell.
The 8 lugs are rarely seen. They are what I call the Leedy style lug. It’s not a direct copy of what Leedy had, just somewhat influenced - kind of a cross between the Leedy tom lug and the Slingerland/Leedy era snare lug. The Art Deco lines really ties them together. One of the things that is unique about this lug is that it stands alone, there were no bass drum or tom lugs that accompanied them. This lug only appears in Star’s 1963 catalog and the Apollo catalog.
The hoops are what Star called “Stick-Saver”. The Stick-Saver counter hoop was introduced by Star in their very first catalog in 1961 and were replaced by standard triple-flange hoops in 1965. These hoops were nearly a direct copy of Slingerland’s “Triple-Flanged” hoops which were introduced in 1955. Ironically Slingerland never officially adopted the Stick-Saver name which is one of the things they are best known for.
The Strainer is another copy, this time Rogers was the influencer. The strainer only appears in Star’s 1963 catalog. It must have been a more expensive or harder to assemble strainer because its functionality is excellent. It stays put when set and has a ton of room for tensioning. The Rogers version that was copied was introduced in 1954 and was called the “Orchestra” strainer and at the end the “Universal” strainer by Rogers and was used throughout the 50’s and 60’s. Note that the only noticeable difference between the two is the handle is twisted in the opposite direction.
The tone control was another borrowing of Slingerland. It is the hook type with the knob acting as a nut. Slingerland used this style up into the 70’s. The Slingerland example is from their 1971 catalog.
The Butt Plate or as Star calls it the “Back Plate” is a standard Star. It’s the most generic piece of hardware on the drum.
The wrap’s official name is Gold Sparkle Pearl, or what most people call Orange Sparkle. The aging on the wrap is a combination of fading and dark spotting.
The heads appear to be original, very thin, with the batter being the equivalent to a Remo Diplomat. The hoop on the heads are a yellowing plastic.
Overall this drum with the original heads is great for use with rods, brushes, or 7A sticks for acoustic driven music. The Apollo ad is from a 1960’s Apollo catalog.