Best/Worst or Favorite/Least Favorite finishes?

This is my favorite wrap.
I've never seen it anywhere other than the picture I found from an ebay seller.

Screen Shot 2017-11-10 at 8.06.07 AM.png
And my favorite veneer is Karelian birch.

Screen Shot 2017-11-10 at 8.37.26 AM.pngIMG_2926.JPG

But a really nice luxury would be to have drums that match your bass boat.

Screen Shot 2017-11-10 at 8.48.29 AM.png
 
I really don't like plain black drums or wine red. Over done and just blah to me. I like wood grains and sparkles the best.
 
I really like Piano Black drums, I like most oyster pearls, I like most sparkles. Plain brown wood finishes/stains don't excite me. I need to see some color over the wood I guess.
 
I pretty much across the board dislike solid colors, whether it's wrap, lacquer or anything else. Also tend to dislike shiny sunbursts and shiny exotic woods, though I could imagine possibly liking matte versions of either if it happened to be just right.

Tend to like any sparkle/oyster/onyx/etc wrap and monochromatic stained wood shells in the clear-brown spectrum.

Basically whatever the drummers I grew up loving would have been playing. I accept that it's heavily based on nostalgia, but my experience has been that drum sets that look "modern" and shiny to me are going to require more work to make sound how I want them to. Not always true but there it is.

I recently purchased a red lacquer Yamaha RC birch snare. It sounds fantastic but I really hate the way it looks...
 
I think every company kind of has a signature finish or two that screams "This is what our company is".

For DW it's clearly a Candy Black to Natural Burst over an exotic of some kind, probably curly maple.

For Pearl, it's probably any sparkle lacquer. They easily do the best of those finishes. Probably Comet Sparkle or Diamond Burst.

For Tama, it's probably the natural Cordia veneer that they've been putting on all kinds of drums for 30 years or more.

Yamaha's is either the legendary Piano Black or Amber Sunburst that they've been putting on their Oak and Live Customs, as well as the Absolutes and RCs at one time. You could also say Vintage Natural as well.

Ludwig is either Green Sparkle or Black Oyster wrap finishes.

Gretsch is probably a toss up between White Marine Pearl and a Satin Natural. I feel like those colors just scream Gretsch.

For Sonor, I feel like any of their vertical grain Exotic veneers is them. Or the Nussbaum finish.
 
Don't know if it'll ever happen, but I've wanted a Gretsch kit in Chestnut Duck for a while now. One of the most timeless and classy finishes i can think of. It would never go out of style.
 
Don't know if it'll ever happen, but I've wanted a Gretsch kit in Chestnut Duck for a while now. One of the most timeless and classy finishes i can think of. It would never go out of style.


Chestnut Duck ??? That is a new one for me. Is that new ?
 
Worst is probably Rogers old butcher block finish. Ludwig did a version of that, and a fake wood grain wrap that was nearly equally horrendous. Also Rogers's red onyx. Sonor had some metallic wraps in the 70s that were straight up east Berlin-- olive, magenta, copper, panzerfaust green.

Best are basic natural finishes-- maple, honey maple, walnut, cherry, or ebony-- piano black lacquer, and Sonor's old rosewood or mahogany veneer.
 
My most hated is anything red or black.... My all time favorite is the Tama yellow kit that Erskine was advertising a few years ago. just beautiful...
 
I tend to prefer sparkles most of all. I also have a soft spot for a good satin flame. I really like the way both of these look under lights.

I also dig a lot of the classic wraps (WMP, most stratas, some of the oysters, etc)

I don't care for solid lacquered colors much, but I'm neutral on piano black and white, probably because they're neutral themselves.

Solid wood can look great, of course depending on grain and quality of the finish. Generally I prefer something not too light of a tone, unless it has really strong grain, nor anything too dark where you can't really see the grain. Not so much a fan of the segmented look either. Also, as much as I love the look up close, more often than not I'm not so impressed with how they look on stage.

Bursts I generally turn my nose up to. Even in the same color scheme, I prefer a fade, which is still not my favorite. I think they throw off my sense of symmetry. Maybe that's not even the right word, perhaps it's more that I think they make the kit look unbalanced somehow.

None of these are rules as much as they are tendencies. There are plenty of exceptions to be made.

Specific finishes that have caught my eye in recent years and really made me do a double take: Tama's Black Clouds and Silver Linings and Ocean Blue Ripple Lacquers, Pearl's Black and White Oyster wrap (aka the Bo Eder Zebra), and many of the graffiti finishes from Oriollo (especially with the clearcoats)
 
I'm also not into solid lacquered drums, although I do own a kit in solid green I'd put it down to my tastes changing over time. Now I don't like that look at all.

Really do love a Black Oyster wrap and that's never changed over time. Even like the variations of that finish get me drooling in most cases.

Also a major sucker for a wood finish. Just looks stunning in most cases.
 
Back
Top