Hi -
Really impressive mods here! When I have time I'll have to check them out in more detail.
I'm a newby and an amateur drummer but I decided that it was time to replace my old Royce kit with something a little better, so I got a Ludwig CS Accent Combo Rock for a good price off Ebay, with an extra kick and 8 x 10 tom thrown in. I was considering a Gretsch Catalina which I'm sure would have been a better set overall, but decided to cheap out because I thought I had a mod that might allow the CS toms to punch above their weight acoustically.
It looks like the tom shells are 6 ply, all light colored wood. If anybody knows what Ludwig means exactly by 'select veneer' here, please tell me. All basswood? Basswood & some birch, or something else? IAC, I assumed the worst. So when I got the drums I bought a 4 oz bottle of thin CA model glue (penetrating super glue) and painted the insides of the tom shells and bearing surfaces with it using a cheap foam paintbrush. I did this outside because the CA fumes while it was curing were horrendous. I figured the results couldn't be too awful because CA basically hardens up to acrylic plastic like used in Vistalite drums
If anybody else tries, this, don't get the CA glue on the outside of the shell - it's tough to impossible to get off without marring the finish as I found out the hard way. Fortunately, I was able to remove it using acetone and a lot of elbow grease without fatally marring the wrap, which I was able to polish up again with a lot more elbow grease.
I haven't got the drum kit together yet - still waiting for the second kick and the 10 x 8 tom as well as the Remo pinstripe and Aquarian Super Kick 2 batter heads with Falam patches, but the tom shells are definitely stiffer - I'm guessing as much as twice as stiff as they were before I painted their insides with CA glue, so maybe I'll get a better sound than the dead 'thud' sound I've heard some people say basswood gives.
Also, has anybody tried adding mass to the center region of the kick's resonant head, like maybe gluing a cut down single ply head to it? I wonder if giving it more of a diaphragm motion with a bit of extra mass could give more LF output and punch to the sound? Also, I was wondering if doing this might possibly allow tuning the resonant head lower with less wrinkling. I'm not planning to cut a hole in the kick resonant head, so this could be an option.
Thanks much for any response, and I'll be back to check out this site again soon.