Pearl Free Floating Snare - Generation 1

Pearl developed their "Free Floating" snare drums to remove all hardware from the shell, enabling players to change shells as easily as heads (almost), and to allow the shells to resonate freely without interference from the lugs, strainers, and other hardware attached to typical drums. The interchangeable shells drop into a "tub" to which a number (10 for this snare) of lugs are attached. Basically you drop a shell into the tub, place the heads on, and attach the hoops. This is, as far as I can determine, a "first generation" free floating snare, built in the 80's to early 90's. This "generation" had a quasi - parallel strainer system with a Gladstone type throw, adjustable butt plate, and extended snare wires  (I distinguish this from the parallel strainer systems seen on other Pearl snares of that era - a couple of examples of which are on my humble blog; the system on the Tama Kingbeat snares; and the Ludwig supersensitives, to name three, where the system had a lever that lifted and dropped the snare wires off and on the head). This generation also had hexagonal lugs; generations two and three have round lugs. (I've included a link to a webpage that summarizes the history of these drums very well).

This snare is in very good condition overall. It has a brass shell with a depth of 6". The "effective" (i.e. head to head) dept is 6.5". It has Pearl's diecast rims and, as mentioned above, a Gladstone type strainer (Pearl made very good Gladstone type strainers in the 80's; a maple snare I have noted on this blog has another example). I will be replacing the old extended snare wires with Pearl's S-025 snare wires that are still being made for their free floating snares. Puresound also makes a "vintage" snare wire for these drums.

http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/showthread.php?253488-Free-Floating-Snares

Update: Sold December 14, 2011 (funding some new projects...)