Personally I would clearcoat the insides.

Thanks Gerald! That would be easier than white.

Well I have been playing around with some different stains. Cant seem to get the right color yet but sooner or later it will come.

Pictured is a marching snare drum shell that will be used to make a snare drum. I am going to cut it down to 5 or 5.5". I really dig kits with matching snare drums and the few that I have done like this have come out sounding really good.

Also, working on removing the black paint off the bass drum hoops. I would love to get them cleaned up enough for staining but so far I have my doubts. If I can stain them to match the drum shells then the inlay would be a natural birch, if I can get all of the black off then I would like to have the hoop natural and the inlay stained to match the shell.

I like the darker stain with the lug on it way best. I'd be sorely tempted also to leave the hoops black and cut the inlay out of that gold sparkle off the snare. But nice dark honey maple hoops, on the other hand...

I hope this doesn't confuse things.

I like it the best so far too but it just seem's so dark.

Sorry the gold sparkle is already in the trash, hah hah

Im in no hurry, gonna try a few other things.

Still playing with the colors. Today I sprayed some orange dye on two pieces of birch plywood. Then stained one with walnut stain and the other with rich cherry. Then mixed up some lacquer with a walnut shading additive. I did three different shades of the walnut. Lastly I sprayed a coat of clear over everything except the orange dye that I had masked off, I did that so I can see how the orange dye should look when I go to do the drums.

The sample with the rich cherry stain matches the Gretsch floor tom picture pretty good. The Gretsch drum's finish is called walnut gloss lacquer, it looks pretty red to me. I took a picture of my sample next to the computer monitor with the Gretsch floor tom, thats a first for me, never tried to match to a picture before.

Jeff just remember computer screen colors are adjustable and show color in in RGB (red-blue-green). So what color you might see as a dead nuts match might vary a little in real life. Try a few other computer screens in the house and you'll see what I mean. Just a tip from your friendly local printerman. :D

And BTW I really like the cherry stain a lot!

Thanks Glenn, I held it up to my wife's PC and it looks even better!

I know its a goofy way to match a color but as long as I like what I see here on my sample then It doesn't need to match perfect. The Gretsch drum has been a lot of help.

That's cool Jeff I'm glad it looks good! Carry on buddy. :)