Restoring an old Royal Snare

veecharlie

Senior Member
I saw this snare online and while I did consider it buying it, passed on. Next thing I know, my partner comes to say me before going to the rehearsal we will go pick it up (!) very thankful!

I decided to take it apart, restore it and clean it. It sounds fantastic, warm and full. The snare contact is also great and during the rehearsal it held tune perfectly.

After I asked some people and did some research, turns out this brand is very special. It's made in The Netherlands, has spanish wood and it was made between the 60's d 70's. Royal, was a merged brand between two businessmen after WW2. One of the things that caught me the attention is that one of the men had a company manufacturing metal parts during WW2, extremely interesting story!

I'm wondering if anybody here has one too?


Attached is a picture of the worst I found on it... like literally, nobody ever took it apart for cleaning.

For those who want to see the video restoring it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neA-stvTkBc

Maybe for the nerds like me that like reading history, here is a link where I found all the info. It's apparently legit history, a friend of mine who gifted me the replacement tune rod has a full collection of them and indeed the facts are correct (wow)

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/royal/history3.html

in dutch:
https://www.slagwerkkrant.nl/nieuws/artikel/25-6302/royal-drums
 

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Fantastic! Interesting history.

Looking forward to following your progress.
 
Excellent! Thanks for sharing.

I didn't hear or see any video of the restored drum, what it sounds like when played- can you make a video of that?
 
The shell and hardware cleaned-up nicely! Great looking drum!

Are you planning on incorporating the drum into a kit setup, or playing independently?
 
Thank you!

Yes, I plan to use it either as a main or snom snare, by itself sounds really good when tuned low, it has a lot of character, very warm.
Indeed they do. You have a real gem there.

Will stay tuned for any additional videos you may post on it.

Great chatting with you.
 
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