Painful Snare Drum Question

R

ricc333

Senior Member
Hello drummer friends. It makes me really sad to ask, but one of my favorite snare drums got damaged a few years ago when I loaned it semi-long-term to someone else. They have yet to find his body. *high five's his cat* Anyway, the batter side of the shell is damaged with the plies coming apart, as the following pics will show. Does anyone know if this can be repaired? I really love this drum and I don't want to be done playing it. I don't need it back to road warrior status, but I'd like to at least be able to record with it again. It's a Ludwig Super Classic Limited Edition......009 no less. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

So here's the pics real quick. I don't want to look at 'em again.

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Thanks in advance.
 
Man, that's a harsh set of pics to look at for sure! Only thing I can think of is cutting out the bad parts of the wood and making is shallower than it was before, say a 5x14 as opposed to the 6.5 x14 that it is/was. Or maybe a piccolo depending. Good luck!
 
Buy a new shell and make a new drum out of that hardware and the new shell.
 
If you want to keep using that shell you will probably have to make it a very shallow drum (maybe 3-4"). This is because you have various mounting holes drilled that will get in the way. Obviously, the lugs that you have on this drum will have to go because they will not fit a shallow shell.

I would say that you could turn this shell into a piccolo and put all new hardware on it. Also, as Crazy8's said, you could salvage your hardware and install it on a new 6.5" shell. Why not do both?
 
Time to get that new Eames 40-ply maple shell you've always wanted! ;)

Sorry to see the old shell take such a beating, but it happens, I guess. Say a prayer and let it go.
 
How about a half a dozen clamps and some wood glue? If there's no actual wood missing, and it's just a seperation issue, glue it back together, and clamp it tight. Even if there is wood missing you still have to do this. Then just fill in the missing material, if any, with a plastic wood product, and shape the edges to the existing bearing edge profile. It's worth a try.

Concrete Pete (a member here) could fix that for you.
 
I've gotta ask... what happened? Cranked until the rim was below the edge and then rimshots until it gave up? That's ridiculous.

I wouldn't attempt a DIY fix. I'd start on this one with Chris Heuer or Bill Detamore. You need the drumshell equivalent of Dr. House.
 
Arrrrrrrg!!! I was afraid y'all'd say that. You all are probably right, but I'm not ready to give up on it yet. Now's a good time to join that woodworking forum I've always lurked on. Cept I've never wanted to. I'll let you all know what I find if you're interested.

Back when I was a kid, I used to crank my snare heads ungodly tight and I never made a drum do that. I still don't know how dude got it like that.

If all else fails I might try to make it a 5" like you all suggested. I don't know the first thing about building drums. I do well enough to attempt playing them.

Thanks for feeling my pain, friends.
 
Larry's a believer!!!

The clamps and wood glue I can do! I'd rather try that before I do anything more extreme. I'll give Pete a message and see if he'd like to take a look.

I don't know ya, Larry, but you've got moxy. Thank you, man!
 
Chonson said:
I've gotta ask... what happened?
Click to expand...

I wish I knew. I haven't seen the dude since the day I let him borrow it. His girl brought it to me a couple weeks after she dumped him and he moved away.

My theory is that it got put under something really heavy and it started to buckle. All the damage is on one side. I just don't think it's possible to crank a head that tight. I've even had snares that I put Falam heads on and the lug inserts will break first. You can't possibly crank any drum head tight enough to do something like that.
 
That shell is toast and the joining in between plies has been compromised which means it will likely just keep delaminating. Perhaps it could be glued back together, but I doubt it would ever be the same as it was. A fix job may cost you $100+ from a drum fixer but a new shell would be around that too.

You might take that 'dude' to small claims court, cus he ruined that drum. It looks like about a $500 drum when it was new.

Edit: It looks like it got wet and someone stood on it or stacked stuff on it without heads on the drum. Blatant abuse, as though it was intended to be damaged. I would have pummeled the guy or taken his girl from him or something. LOL!
 
Italians don't take people to court. That's about where that stands.

You're probably right about the delaminating. I have to try though. That's the snare I used on the first real honest-to-God album I ever played on. Everything but the bass and drums sounded like crap, but the drums and bass sounded awesome. The guy that engineered it even wanted to buy it from me.

But Italians don't take people to court. If I ever see that dude again, I'm totally going to beat the life out of him with that snare drum. I'm not even a violent person, but I'd totally go all James Harrison on him.
 
Crazy8s said:
That shell is toast and the joining in between plies has been compromised which means it will likely just keep delaminating. Perhaps it could be glued back together, but I doubt it would ever be the same as it was. A fix job may cost you $100+ from a drum fixer but a new shell would be around that too. LOL!
Click to expand...

I agree with this 100%. If you loved the drum, get a new shell the same size, have it drilled for your hardware and transfer the hardware. Don't bother with a costly repair-it will never be the same. I could be wrong, but it looks like there's also damage in the 12 o'clock and 9:00 positions also. Its toast for sure.

If you cut it down, you'd need to buy at least new lugs. As someone suggested, you could do both: have it cut down, build a piccolo snare and put the existing hardware on a new shell. That way, you salvage your favorite drum in all respects.
 
Ugh - I feel your pain. That's hurtful.

If you ever see that guy again I'm sure he'll enjoy his nappy time with Luca Brazi - sleeping with the fishes. LOL!

From what I've read so far, you have more of an emotional than a musical attachment to this drum. My take on it is that if you can find a way to make it at all playable, you will.

But - I think it would take a real miracle for it to approximate the sonic success you had with it in the good old days. If you have to repair it, make sure you are eyes open about the possibility that it will be a much lesser drum. You might also watch ebay to see if someone is ditching a shell from this same drum although that seems unlikely.


Otherwise I'd say strip the hardware, find a good shell and watch the Phoenix rise from the ashes. You could have a pro do it or make it a DIY labor of love. If you can talk yourself into a new shell, you can probably find a shell that would be very similar to the one you have or possibly better. You could have a pro inscribe 'Son of 009' on the badge. Then the loss might not hurt so much?

Wow...kinda sounds like were talking about a beloved family pet doesn't it?


Jim
 
I would take a shot at gluing it and clamping it down tight. You might just be able to make that work. There are some great glues out there, I would do a little research on it first. If that doesn't work, this may be one of those drums that you hang up on the wall and tell stories about, haha. Best of luck with it man, those pictures made me want to cry :/
 
You might contact Jeff at Carolina Drum Works. He is in Maryland and does very handsome work. I am pretty confident that he could rejuvenate that drum to better than new.

carolinadrumworks.com
 
i've seen lots of things with this kind of damage, never a drum but lots of other wood products. it does look like water damage, been sitting in a puddle or something for a while would be my guess. but everything i've ever worked on with this kind of damage ended up not being salvagable.

if i were you i would get the specs off the shell and try to match up an after market shell and rebuild it. thats about as close as your gonna get to getting it back to normal again, or even usuable for that matter.

i doubt clamps and glue are going to fix it with the shell warping like that, the plies coming apart possibly but the warping defenitely not, but you can try. your not gonna make it any worse...
 
That's really too bad. I love the veneer on this snare.

You know, i am normally a glass-half-full kind of guy, but I have restored enough drums in my time to know that this one is a goner and no amount of filler, glue, or whatever is going to be appropriate enough to strengthen the shell to where it can once again handle the stress of being tuned to proper tensioning. Yes, it's de-laminating & it's also warped (a clear sign of liquid damage). Also even if you were able to get the shell strong enough to handle the stress of taunt heads, you would probably still have trouble with the drum being in round or in true. It will not be the same drum and will probably depress you even more than kissing a once loved instrument goodbye.

There are so many great used snare drums on the market for cheap right now, that it would pointless to pour any money into restoring this one unless you were just to replace the shell. Still even with Shell replacement, expect a different sounding snare.
 
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