This is interesting,because I'm in a similar boat,but Cherry Wine instead of Super Mahogany.The worst area is where the 13' was contacting the snare,which because I've reconfigured the set-up,is facing forward.An ugly scratch thru the shiny surface down to the wood.HELP US OH GREAT WOODMEISTERS!

It is a polyester, not a lacquer just as thought. You can touch it up but it will never blend properly so from a distance they might look ok but not close up.

If they are so bad they need to be totally refinished you will have to find a professional woodworker that has experience in refinishing wood pianos that have that type coating. They will probably do drums also but its not going to be cheap. Even stripping it properly requires a special process to be done right.

You can completely redo these yourself using a lacquer but getting an exact match is really going to be hard and its going to be very labor intensive to strip the drums if you've never done them before. You can strip it by sanding but it will take you forever and you'll likely get frustrated and never finish the project.

The easiest and cheapest way to get a really nice original looking Superstar drum set is to buy a nicer Superstar set and sell what you have. It sounds ridiculous but thats the conclusion you will have in the end

I love both of my sets enough (also have a cherry wine) that I'll keep them even with their scratches. Do you know if the finish would react well to wet sanding with ultra fine sandpaper for the smaller stuff? I would polish them after, but would it react the same way as lacquer as far as the haze being buffed out?

And teverson-sr, I can't help much with the large scratches, but have you tried Meguiar's ultimate compound? It is amazing! I've even used it on sparkle wraps and the results are great. Follow up with a wax, and you won't be disappointed!

The wet sanding idea is a good question. I never tried it but I have polished out some minor surface scratches on my Super Mahogany set with some Novice polishing compound. I would try the wet sanding in a small area, maybe even underneath the mounting bracket which will not be seen after its reinstalled to test it out. Meguiars is a good product. I've used that also.

The finish on the Supes is very hard so it should be able to handle wet sanding. If you try it let us know the results.

If the only blemishes are just scratches and "dents" and not through to the wood then I would think you have a good chance of getting them out or at least reducing there size. I hope to hear that it works. Good luck.

I think you should PM J.R.Frondelli.He has a pretty good handle on this stuff.

Steve B

For such finish you can use superglue to fill the scratch / ding as long as it doesn't go down to the wood.

You have to be patient and apply the glue drop by drop. If you try to apply one single jet of glue it will take ages to cure.

Once the glue is perfectly dry (24h minimum), you can sand : 400 --> 1200 + micromesh/microgloss

There should be some tutorials on guitar making forums.

So here are my new friends,scratches and all.The 13" is a converted concert tom.These are really nice sounding drums-13/18/24.I'll be making another stainless steel "delete"plate for the tom mount hole.The scratches make me sad...but playing them does not.:D

Thanks for the input everyone! I am going to try a few things out and see what kind of results I get. If anyone else has anything to add, I am open to ideas.

I realize this is SUPER late but...

I have a Tama SS Cherry Wine snare that I was able to repair

to a good enough state for me. Not perfect by any means but

looks fine to me from a distance. I used a Minwax stain pen

to hide the scratches, just didn't want to go through a lot of

hassle with a piano style finish repair. I also used some super fine,

probably quad ought steel wool to very lightly buff the blended

stain pen 'into' the existing finish.

Can't believe my last login on VDF was June of '11 either! :)