When i got my vintage early 70's Yamaha, i removed the crummy yellow paint that covered it, gave them a good light sanding, lacquered the interiors, and then i did the exteriors with satin lacquer..They looked and sounded even better..I've since sold the kit to a jazz student..

As far as changing the tone....all my snares have a piece of gel at 10:00 and 2:00. I don't like the ring.

IMO, part of the charm of a cheap MIJ snare is that it will sound different, perhaps even "cheap." After all, it's likely to be very thin 3-ply lauan with pine re-rings or something. Not really the greatest materials.

I've owned a few of them and they've never made "every day player" status, but I keep them around because they each have their own particular sound.

Level the edges, finish the interiors, sharpen (or round) the bearing edges; all of these things will change the tone somewhat.

Special paintjob (after removing wrap) on a M.I.J. (Pre-Tama) kit. Also touched up the bearing edges (smoothening by sanding with fine sanding paper was enough, they allready were in good shape). If anyone ever wants to play a vintage MIJ for little money, I can surely recommend these. They sounded really good. Not loud, nor projecting very much, but very warm and bassy. On Dutch and Belgian internet markets they sometimes show up as Lynx or Hoshino or Emperador. The 12 and 13 inch rack-toms have 8 lugs instead of the usual 6. --> http://vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=48266

Next, a special paintjob (after removing wrap) on a Thunder kit (20/13/16). Luan shells with pine (!) re-rings. I leveled the quite heavily warped bearing edges and re-cut them close to the original complete roundover. I coated them grey (like the inside of the shell) and made them ultra smooth. This kit has a very specific sound, that I would describe as mean and dirty (which for me is a POSITIVE thing). The floortom could be tuned very low and growled when hit really hard (also in a positive sense). Same with the bass drum. This kit wasn't loud and projecting either, but very warm in tone.

I sold both kits.

A note: I'm getting more and more open to the idea that, in terms of sound, there is no such thing as inferior woodtypes. Off course, some woods don't bend easily, are unstable or difficult to work with, but apart from that.......

Pine inferior?

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D1J7TRo9fY"]Outlaw Drums - Antique Heart Pine - 2014 Snare Drum Olympics, Subjective Judging - YouTube[/ame]

Wow - thanks for sharing, Bart

That video was cool - interesting.....Pine - then you hear it! Holy Crow that is a good sounding drum IMHO.

Remember how we all grew up believe that Maple was the end all be all Best wood in drums? Well, finally.....after about 30 years of playing....I bought a Maple kit. It was gorgeous......modern Asian....(I'll leave it at that)....you could tell that it was a quality kit....wood looked great - great edges, the whole deal.....

.... just did not think they sounded that great!!!! They sounded good - but I could not find the sweet spot like I could on my Luan MIJs. Mic-ed up perhaps they would have sounded good - but if they don't do it for ya acoustically - then they should not expect to sound that great 'on tape'.

....So, I decided to sell it...and have decided to generally (with few exceptions) AVOID Maple and go vintage MIJ all the way. I just love the pre-67 thin ply with the rerings....the resonance and deep rich tone.....

The only exceptions is a Birch Rogers R-380, a maple snare, and a Beechwood (I think that's what it was) Sonor snare. One more exception - I have some Maple/Poplar marchers that I will cut down to about 6in deep.

Another thing - wow, Bart, I remember your striped painted kit there - and the edges....just beautiful! You did a fabulous job on that kit! I hope the new owner loves it. That kit IS worthy! The vintage MIJs with the thicker shells like that - can make great snares. I flipped a Majestic Deluxe with those shells - snare sounded just woody as all get out - total vintage tone through and through.

Thanks, John.

Reading (and analysing) your post I think crucial is modern vs. vintage instead of woodtype X vs. woodtype Y. It seems to me you dig thin shells (with roundovers) and don't dig thick shells (with double 45's).

I guess the fact that old drums are "seasoned" may have to do with it as well.

My regular band-kit is a maple Roger Big R from around 1976 in big sizes (24/13/18). Thin shells with re-rings. Boy, does that kit sound warm and fat. But I have thin shelled birch kits too (Beverley f.i.) of which I like the sound as well.

And on pine: I'm currently working on a stave snare drum 14 x 6. I'm making it from fir, which is the cheaper cousin of pine. Very soft, with a very low density, quite unstable, nearly impossible to bend. In the Netherlands it is disparagingly called "waaibomenhout" (roughly translated as: wood-from-trees-that-bend-with-the-winds-way-too-easily) and it's is the cheapest wood around. Most drum builders will consider it absolutely inferior. The shell started out as a test. I'm in the process of building my own stave drum kit (24/12/16/15s) from oak, but I don't want to end up with the usual thick, high pitched, loud and projecting shells that are the products of stave construction. I want them to be very thin, like the old vintage shells, with re-rings. I figured out a way to glue the staves together with finger-jounts to make extra strong connections. To run a first test I constructed this fir snare. I was able to mill it down to 4 mm thickness. It has 6 mm re-rings (also fir) now. It has roundover bearing edges. I'm going to fit it with some vintage hardware I have lying around. My expectations are the drum will sound very warm and woody, with a short sustain and that it will sound best in the low regions. A drum for a big fat backbeat. But that remains to be tested though. If you're curious I'll keep you updated.

@other readers: sorry for being off topic!

I am VERY interested in the outcome of that Fir drum project. Please post a link if you do a video or sound clip-

Interested as well in the fir build. No worries about off topic, great thread going here. Agree the wood type is not that big of deal. Sound is all that matters. Have a red sparkle 16" floor tom Hoshino Slingerland clone that thunders. Same with the matching 20" bass. Really good sounding drums.

Sound like my Slingerlands No. Never expected them to. Have a Pearl 9 ply kit that hits a nice spot to my ears. Great thing is these are still no costa alotta kits that still work very well!

Creighton

Took a quick snap of my little mongrel half-MIJ kit at a gig over the weekend - Drouyn 17" tenor converted to BD (sounds great!), complete with Maxwin 12" & 13" toms covered in floor varnish (believe it or not but the toms are the same colour and also sound great), and my poor chrome-crumbling '65 Ludwig Supraphonic, which still sounds tight and crunchy even though it looks pocked and aged. For a mish-mash of a kit it plays really well and is perfect for jazz and light dance gigs. Needs a good clean, but I'll get to that one of these days...

No, this is great. I want to hear more as well and I think we're all keen to see the end result!

Plus 1 on that! Cool idea!

I, too am tired of "maple is king." Not that maple doesn't sound and look great, but I like having many timbres to mess with.