Its just that so many of the drums I see that are "nickel" for sure...they look so flat grey. Like almost grey paint. They don't seem shiny. If I was looking at your drum here I would say definitely chrome....but Id be wrong???
When really polished up are they that close? Are the pics I see that look obvious just really beat up? Did the nickel plating get better later on?
Like for instance does a 1930's nickel plating look way more obvious than a 60's one? Anyone else on this?
Thanks!
-Adam
I don't know man, we need someone else's expertise on this one. I know what you mean about the duller nickel. Wasn't there a satin type nickel finish option? Or is all nickel the duller finish?
I'll chime in..."dull" / "shiney" is not always the difference. New nickel can be very shiney. All chrome parts are first nickel plated, that's the silver color you see. The chrome layer protects in shiney nickel, gives it a "harder" shine and longer life. To me, chrome pieces just look "harder"; nickel has a "softer" shine. If you clean an old nickel part with a metal cleaner you'll get black (nickel) on the rag. You have to be careful because you can polish right through to the copper layer under the nickel. Old chrome, all you'll get on your rag is dirt. With old nickel parts you'll see rust and black corrosion. With chrome you tend to see more pitting. Some people say there is a slight color difference, one is bluer and the other is yellower, I can't recall which is which. I looked at examples I have of both and the color looked about the same to me. Don't know if this "rambling" helped...I'm sure others with comment.
Well, I didn't get any black stuff on the rag when I used the metal polish. So my hardware may be chrome after all. Either way, it's shiny. And all I know is that I like shiny things.
Finally getting back to this project after a few months of side tracking. Here is the bass drum so far. I am waiting for the paint to dry on the hoops as I write this. Tomorrow I can actually play it again!
I was able to find a date stamp that was legible: Oct 18, 1958.
Question for you guys: I'm planning on going with a coated white Ambassador reso head on this bass drum. Should I put a Ludwig logo on it, or leave it blank since these are WFL? I'm leaning towards putting a logo on it.
I used a Ludwig reso head with a felt strip on my Luddies, it has the vintage logo on it. It is a bit translucent but looks pretty good. Got it at the Drumpad, right in your neck of the woods! Sounds fantastic.
I ended up ordering an evans eq3 coated white reso. It has the muffler ring already, so I won't have to mess with a felt strip. Plus all my other heads are evans. I looked at the ludwig logo heads, but they only come in smooth white. For some reason I just like the coated look better.
The drum pad is awesome! I actually there for a little while about 5 or 6 years ago.
I got everything back together yesterday. It was the first time I've played the kit with new heads. Wow. It sounds amazing-- I haven't had that much fun playing drums in a very long time.
