Hi all,
I'm new to this forum, but I thought i might have something to contribute.
I'm a student from the Netherlands, and I now and then buy a cheap kit, restore it where needed, and sell it again for a bit more. Nice way to make some money, you get to play lot's of nice stuff, like now. Right now i'm restoring a Sonor Signature and the following kit:
A few months ago, I purchased a clear Ludwig Vistalite in very nice condition.
Sizes: 14x26, 9x13, 10x14, 12x5, 14x16, 16x18. I later purchased a 5x14 snare.
The kit came with flightcases, and two Pearl tom stands with Ludwig L-rods.
I managed to lay my hands on a Hercules Hardwareset today, which i will be picking up tomorrow. It consists of two straight stands, one giraffe stand, a snare stand, a hihat stand and a speed king pedal.
When I received the kit, it had muffling rings inside the shell pressing into the head, like the Remo Muffl systems. Only these were attached to the shell with sillicone! It was one helle of a job removing those. While removing them, I thought it would be nice to make this kit as original as possible. I searched for the original tom mufflers, of wich I found two, and I already have two. (only missing one) and bought black dots over ambassadors for the set, like Bonham had on his Vistalite. Removing the sillicone left some very light scratches, so I decided to polish every shell. Now, i'm almost done, and the finished shells shine like new ones. The chrome as well, the previous owner took care of this kit very well. In the flightcases he kept begs of rice, the keep air moisture levels down. I've got the 26" and the 13", 14" and 15" toms done now.
Now I have a question for you guys. You're the most experianced with these kind of drums. When i finish, i will sell them by ebay. Would it be a problem to ship the drums in their flightcases? Or will they crack, and should I only give buyers the option to pick them up, narrowing down my number of buyers considerably?
This thread is useless without pictures, so:
The set in it's flightcases
[IMG]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/vistalite/4.jpg[/IMG]
Picture from the previous owner, with the ugle muffling rings
[IMG]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/vistalite/5.jpg[/IMG]
the muffling ring upclose
[IMG]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/vistalite/1.jpg[/IMG]
removed
[IMG]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/vistalite/2.jpg[/IMG]
the ring with the sillicone clearly visible
[IMG]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/vistalite/3.jpg[/IMG]
Hardware stripped from 1 tom
[IMG]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/vistalite/6.jpg[/IMG]
Story so far...
