The Drum Modification Thread

Here's the recent job I've done on a DW 6x12 snare. The "psyché" blue finish ply got me seasick as it was impossible to focus on it properly. It looks way better in honey gold laquer finish. Pix will have a better speech:



Ludo
 

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Hey guys, so i have taken the leap and started to re wrap my drums. Being a remo mastertouch it does not have a woodgrain finish under the original wrap so i have gone for a maple veneer to get the look i am after. I have also used an american walnut strip veneer along the bottom of the drum but sadly I could only get it in 1" strips as i was wanting 2". It is all looking pretty good so far with the 14" tom i have started on but i still have to add the stain and matt clearcoat plus a bit more sanding and filling of a few little gaps as the veneer split upon application :( apart from that i think my kit will look like new once im done. I will even polish up the lugs and get some new hoops as some are a bit rusty and warped.

But hey what do you lot think??
 

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Hi, everyone.
I have a sonor 3005 kit (piano black) and I really love it, the sound and etc. It's a real workhorse for me.
I was thinking of maybe somekind of updgrade for it- take off the wraps and apply a nice finish, change the hoops to die cast (I want some more focused sound).
The problem is that I don't is it worth to spend additional money on this kit.
Is there any sense in doing such an upgrade for a non-high end kit or should I just save some money and buy something expensive?

Many thanks in advance!
 
alright, so check this out. i've got a cheapie dixon kit, got it for $399 new, came with everything, and had that ugly generic wine red wrap. i got tired of it, so i decided to peel off the wraps and give it a paint job. coolest thing i could think of was a blue VH theme. here's a pic-story:
drumsblack.jpg


drumstape.jpg


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drumsblackwhitemasked2.jpg


drumsblue.jpg


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i've still got the stock cymbals that came with the kit, but everything else sounds much better than it did when it had the wrap on.
 
Does anyone know how to paint your drum hoops without spending a large amount of money? ( what time of paint etc)
 
I've got a mid 50's slingerland snare that has been, I can only imagine, painted and had sparkles added (there is paint on the inside of the shell, so I doubt that is the original factory finish). I'm looking to sand it down and re-finish it, however there is the small issue of the badge. How should I go about sanding down the shell while keeping the badge on, or even taking the badge off somehow?
 
This wasn't so much a modification as a refinishing project. I started buying individual Sonor Force 2001 pieces over a period of a year to make a "throw in the car" practice kit. Ended up with four pieces: two in cherry, one in natural, and one in black finish. Stripped them down and repainted them to match. Did a blue "flick" job over white and then shot it with about five coats of clear coat. Has a look between glass and satin. I ended up playing this kit more than I thought and after three years the paint job has endured pretty well. Only one chip and that was from a pretty good hit from slapping the bass drum with my bass pedal while breaking it down.

This is a fantastic finish! Sorely tempting to do this to my own kit.
 
I am really interested in creating the "60's Oyster" effect on a kit that I'm refinishing. The only problem is I have no idea how to. I am assuming that it involves multiple paints (obvious, I know) but I'm not quite sure how the effect is created. If anyone has any experience in this area please point me in the right direction. What I'm after looks something like this but I'm going in a different direction colour-wise. Maybe some green in there somewhere.

nomadsofprague_kit.jpg
 
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HELP with getting a drum cut down in England!

Does anyone know of anyone who does this work in England (ideally South East) and can make good the holes in a sparkle finish? I want a 12 x 10" tom cut down to a 12 x 9", but want it really well done! CHEERS.
 
This is actually a follow up post to the one I had written about sealing the interiors of my Gretsch catalina maple"s. After finishing the job I replaced the Evans G2 over G1 coated heads and I was happy with the sound....for a while. I've always been a coated head kinda guy and had the thought in my head that the clear heads were too bright and loud. Well after a number of months and a lot of reading I eventually changed the heads out for coated G1's over G-plus clears. WOW I thought. The G2's, being two ply heads, were really muffling the true tone of the shells. The use of the G-plus heads as reso's was an even better Idea, since they increased the resonance by 100 percent. There have been a lot of threads on this and you would think that this combo just wouldn't work, but the G plus heads are a single ply 10ml head that actually vibrates more than it's thinner , more used, reso head. This worked for a while until I decided to take the plunge and change all the batter heads to G1 clear. Wow again. The sealed interiors and the clear batters were the combination I was looking for all this time. What a beautiful Open resonant clear maple sound. Just thought you Gretsch cat owners would be motivated by this .
 
I am really interested in creating the "60's Oyster" effect on a kit that I'm refinishing. The only problem is I have no idea how to. I am assuming that it involves multiple paints (obvious, I know) but I'm not quite sure how the effect is created. If anyone has any experience in this area please point me in the right direction. What I'm after looks something like this but I'm going in a different direction colour-wise. Maybe some green in there somewhere.

nomadsofprague_kit.jpg

Here is one way to do it...

Scroll down....
 
I need help with my 71 Ludwig kit. I've had the bearing edges re-cut years ago - slight improvement, but not enough.

For years I've lived with the 22 X 14 inch bass drum's bop feel when the beater hits the batter head.

I'd like to know if I can have the bearing edge on the bass drum re-cut again 2 X 45 degree angles. Right now the outside bearing edge is too rounded - I want less wood contact on the head - like on the newer drums.

I find that the tuning and mainly feel is inconsistent. Has anyone had any experience cutting these older bearing edges on vintage kits?

OR, I'll take all the black oyster pearl wrap of all 3 drums, and just buy a Keller Maple bass drum 22 X 18.

My drumset is as follows:
22 X 14 bass drum
13 X 9 tom
16 X 16 floor tom.
 
One of my full set-ups.
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One of a smaller stature.
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All my drums are wrapped in matching tapestry. 26', 22', 18', 2-16", 13", 12", 10", 13" and 14" snares.
 
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Does anybody know where i can get some Pearl badges from? I am refinishing a kit and the current badges aren't really badges but aluminium pieces that bent to hell when taking the wraps off the drums. Any help would be appreciated.
 
I know I have sinned, but I couldn't help it. This drum was in bad shape.

I picked up a 1966 Supra that was in worse shape than I thought. The rims were bad, the shell was scraped and scratched, the wires kind of funky, etc. The worst thing was-the chrome on the bottom bearing edge had a bunch of deep chips. I don't know how this could have happened, unless some previous owner had used it as a timbale, without the bottom rim-on a snare stand without rubber ends. So I decided I had to refurbish this drum, but didn't want to spend any real money on it. Its a players drum, so I didn't care about trying to 'restore' it to original.

First, I took some course sand paper and sanded the bottom bearing edge down to the aluminum. Once it was smooth, sanded with finer grade paper. Sanded the entire shell with medium, then fine paper. Painted it with some Rustoleum 'Hammered' copper spray paint. This paint hides imperfections, since it applies a hammered looking finish. Ditched the rims, and installed rims I had from a 1980's Yamaha Recording Custom snare (I had put wood rims on that drum). The RC rims are about the same thickness as the original Supra rims. Put a new Evans hazy 300 snare side head and a set of Puresound Blasters. I left the muffler out, as I'm not huge on internal mufflers.

The drum now not only sounds great, but looks great as well. Very happy with how it turned out. Perfect drum to take out.
 

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One of my full set-ups.
DSC02794.jpg

One of a smaller stature.
DSC03231.jpg

All my drums are wrapped in matching tapestry. 26', 22', 18', 2-16", 13", 12", 10", 13" and 14" snares.

Hey, I'm currently working on a setup similar to your second kit. I'm using a 16x18" Floor Tom from an abandoned Lazer Kit as both an 'upright' cocktail kit-style bass drum and a floor tom.

How did you negotiated the sound between both? i stretched a small cloth along the bottom head so that I could have a more muffled bass sound, but it has sort of killed the tom's sustain, but that could probably be a matter of changing out the heads... they're brandless.

How does drilling a hole in the side like I can see in your pic help? does it help amplify the bass?

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http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=464702491028&set=a.456423706028.245458.658106028

I am contemplating the ideo of drilling a hole in the side like yours, but i'd like some advice first :)
 
Hey guys I am about ready to refinish my drums and I need some help. I want to do a sparkle finish in either green or purple. I dont want a wrap, I want to paint the drums. Can anyone tell me 1) what would be the best paint for the drums and 2) how to make a sparkle finish?

Thanks
 
If you want then done right take them to an auto paint shop or someone with painting experience.
 
I'm not too worried about a fantastic job, because this is an old cheap set that I want to get some practice on customizing and whatnot. This is something I wanna learn to do and this is a good kit for me to start on. If this was a much more expensive kit I would take your advice for sure though haha
 
I'm not too worried about a fantastic job, because this is an old cheap set that I want to get some practice on customizing and whatnot. This is something I wanna learn to do and this is a good kit for me to start on. If this was a much more expensive kit I would take your advice for sure though haha

Go get Krylon.
I forget the name, but type in Krylon sparkle paint and you'll get it. The paint is flakes of sparkly color!
 
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