Name something you rescued and brought back to life

Al Parrot inspired me to create this thread when he mentioned that he rescued his Ludwig kit from a dumpster.

Around 2002 or 2003 I grabbed a beat up old 5.5x14 Pearl chrome snare drum off EBay for $25. It had 1 dark photo and no description except that it was a Pearl snare. I really have no clue why I even bought it. I was the only bidder.

When it arrived it was a rusty mess that had been taken apart and carelessly thrown in a box. It had pitting all over, no snare wires, the hoops were rusted and garbage, the tension rods were mismatched rusted and garbage, the lugs were missing screws on the inside and it had no heads. When I opened the box my father said "Why the hell would you buy that piece of s***?"

So I cleaned it up, removed the pitting, swapped out the rims, got new rods, screws, snares and heads. Turns out it was a 70's Pearl Jupiter brass snare, same one as Stewart Copeland used on his Police recordings. It really is an awesome snare drum. I sometimes think about selling it, but the whole ordeal has too much meaning to me to just to let it go.

So what is something you rescued from the garbage and brought back to life"?

I love rescues. Not a total rescue, but I turned the homeless eBay orphans in the first pic into the family shown in the second.

Superman, cool thread and awesome story/snare.

Opentune, love the Slingy's and the rescue/refurbish story.

Here's mine, first ever drum, mid-70's Acro and stand - sat on my brother's barn shelf (with 3 piece 60's Rodgers Holiday set) - until he sold the farm a few years ago. Got it back covered in 25+ years of bird dirt, hay dust, filth and grime. Everything original save the heads and snare wires - some pitting on rims remain = character...

Glad the story inspired you, Supes. Truth to the adage, "one man's trash is another man's treasure".

I rescued an old Speed King pedal. It was dead, stiff and lifeless. I snatched it for $25 from a music store. Took it home, tore it apart, cleaned it really good with some Goof off, and re-lubed the whole thing with some 3 in 1 oil. It worked like new again after my little refurb job. I sold it for $50 on C/L. It sold quickly too.

Superman said:

Turns out it was a 70's Pearl Jupiter brass snare, same one as Stewart Copeland used on his Police recordings.

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Did you ever get it to sound as great as Stewart's snare on recordings?

Thats a nice snare and a job well done. I thought Copelands snare was a snare "of uncertain provenance" ie a bitsa. I believe it had a triple flange hoop and a cast.

I had a friend in need of money to pay bills last week, so I bought his crap Gammon/CB700 set for $140. It sounded terrible, smelled horribly of cat spray,and was set up so low a 4 year old could play it because the snare stand was missing the entire tilter section. I now have it cleaned up, set up at the right height, and not sounding too bad.

I bought it as a practice set so I could quit moving my good set every week to band practice. My goal was to spend no more money on it than the $140 I paid for it but there was a coated Ambassador on the snare side and we all know that won't fly. I had a new Aquarian Hi-Frequency head laying around already so that went on the top. I had to buy snare straps since one was about to snap,and a pack of bass drum lugs to replace a chewed up one so I am at $165 currently.















I feel like I have done a good job so far rescuing it from a life of abuse from cats and knobs of tape holding it together. The Ambassadors are all gone and the clear Emperors that were on the bottom are up top,and my heavy clears from my Ludwig are on the bottoms. All the Wuhan crashes came with the set but I swiped the 16"china from my other set. Giant boom stand is from my other set also until I get an arm to put in the bass drum.

BenjaminCamelot said:

Did you ever get it to sound as great as Stewart's snare on recordings?

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I never recorded it but it sounds as good as any other brass snare I've heard. I prefer it to my Dynasonic. I did pick up a 6.5x14 years later for $80 off Craigslist that didn't need any work. I like the 5.5x14 better though.

mikel said:

Thats a nice snare and a job well done. I thought Copelands snare was a snare "of uncertain provenance" ie a bitsa. I believe it had a triple flange hoop and a cast.

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Thanks. I've read the same thing about the hoops. I just threw on 2 triple flange hoops that I picked up cheap.

In this Copeland video you can see "the snare", the lines are the same and it has the same parallel strainer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwYJxWQCxEE

Slingerland Artist snare drum. New edges, beds and finish and my buddy loved it. Became his go to snare drum.

Here's a thread about some Gretsch round badge orphans I refinished/rescued:

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85052

These are great saves and TLC by everybody. I got a 1984 Paiste Green Label 505 20" Ride from the used bin for $35 at the drum shop. The keyhole, edge ding and paint residue on the bell sweet spot from someone's white sticks didn't harm the sound. I had to use acetone on the paint marks and then went to town with Brasso, Paiste Cymbal Cleaner and Paiste Cymbal Restorer. I later fulfilled a bucket list by doing a trade locally and then using eBay and Reverb to put together a nice set of 505s. I have wanted some since 1986 when they quit making them and I had just then realized how cool they were. Darker-sounding, less complex 2002s are what they sound like:
14" Heavy Hi-Hats, 16" Crash, 18" Crash, 20" Ride. Love 'em.

Half of the kit in my profile pic.

I got the bass drum for £80 from ebay. I think it was thermogloss originally but someone had painted it orange?!?? and then someone else had gone over that in black. The guy who I brought it off was going to do a project like I did but didn't have the time.

I sanded the shell down as the paint had left lumps on the drum and re-wrapped it in a cheap green sparkle. Perfect gigging drum.

Same with the 12" tom. I got that as a shell in a job lot of shells. I got some mini classic lugs from Classic Drums and had some spare rims and rods at home. re-wrapped and same as the bass drum a good gigging drum.

If you have the time to put into it go for it. You'll surprise yourself with what you learn.

1960 Jazz Festival.
The wrap, shell and edges were in fine shape. The nickel hardware was really tarnished. I removed the hardware and used Cape Cod cloths and Fitz Metal Polish to bring her back.