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Ringo Starr Signed Bass Drum - Opinions?

Hi, I would love the Beatles experts to weigh in on this bass drum that is supposedly signed by Ringo. I think the name looks pretty consistent with authentic examples, but the shape of the star, along with the added "sparkles" on the tips of the star are definitely not consistent. Has anyone seen authentic examples of him adding these sparkles before?

Tags: Beatles, Ringo, Starr

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Permalink Reply by John William on August 23, 2018 at 12:47pm

Never seen an authentic Ringo signed like this.

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Permalink Reply by Abcd on August 23, 2018 at 1:49pm

Same here. If it looks fake, it usually is.

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Permalink Reply by Neil A. on August 23, 2018 at 7:45pm

Thanks to those who already replied, does anyone else have any thoughts on whether or not this may be authentic?

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Permalink Reply by goodcat on August 23, 2018 at 8:20pm

To me it's an obvious forgery and I would not buy, sell or recommend this

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Permalink Reply by Josh Board on August 24, 2018 at 12:53pm

fake. and he'd NEVER sign a bass drum, let alone an autograph

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Permalink Reply by Neil A. on August 24, 2018 at 1:01pm

That's not true at all. He has signed tons of drum heads (see photo below), and in fact still sells signed drum heads on his website and at his concerts.

The drum head from my original post was claimed to have been signed in the late 90's/early 2000's - not recently...I am aware that he stopped signing in 2008.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on August 24, 2018 at 1:04pm

I don't like it.

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on August 24, 2018 at 1:46pm

Here's one from '97 for comparison:

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Permalink Reply by Neil A. on August 24, 2018 at 1:58pm

Thanks BallroomDays67 - beautiful piece! The one you attached looks IDENTICAL to the one I posted, with the exception of a slightly different shape of the star, and of course the "sparkles" that I questioned initially. I like to reverse the image to help my eyes focus on the shapes in a more abstract way, as shown below. But based on how close the Ringo signatures are, I would have to say the only way it could possibly be bad is if someone put a drum head over a legit Ringo piece and traced it.

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on August 24, 2018 at 2:03pm

In addition to the sparkles, the star also looks unusually large. To me it looks like he signed a special star for someone.

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Permalink Reply by Neil A. on August 24, 2018 at 2:08pm

Agreed. I just have never seen that special star anywhere else, which is the only reason I am holding on this.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on August 24, 2018 at 2:10pm

I see I am not alone in my scan presentations. Been doing this for years. Upside down and backwards is much more effective as it removes the letter shapes and allows you to focus on other things like negative spaces and loops, etc. And switching to negative allows you to see ink deposit strength etc. Well done.