IMHO, and humble it is, I'd use EITHER tung oil, lacquer or a couple of rattle cans of granitone type spray from Mal-Mart. Any will do, but do yourself a favor and never, ever use poly on drum shells. It makes 'em sound like plastic garbage pails, stuffed full o' rags and beat with a baseball bat, and really rather too high for manly-like soundin' drums.
Good luck, and if you should catch the same addiction to sneakin' into dumpsters after dark on the tips from the wino down the alley that there may be an old drum set hangin' out in said location....oops, said too much already.
Seriously though, if you come across really thin Japanese shells, with re-rings, let us know and we'll give you all kindsa conflictin' advice, but mine is better than theirs...I'm smart-assier than them (Certainly don't follow HIS advice, he don't know sh!t from shinola).Laughing H
[COLOR="Red"]CRAP! I missed the part about black paint inside....stoopid computer.[/COLOR]