I removed the cover from the bass drum - it was not signed by Ronald Kendig. Although, it was signed by the guy who recovered it in January, 1989. Maybe I'll sign it, too.

The video below shows all of the many holes plugged (temporarily) in the bass drum. Some of the plugs required a lot of sanding/checking/sanding/checking to get the fit right because they were way out of round.

Once I have glued the plugs in place and brought them flush with the drum, I will mount the badge in the center of the bass drum as Amosguy's is.

[ame]https://youtu.be/J95XdCNu8OM[/ame]

Wow. Josh, this is super cool.

Came across your thread researching some shells I picked up, which are also ‘58-9 with B&B lugs. I only have kick (20) and tom (12), and the kick has non-original spurs and tom mount receiver, and only has lugs on one side, so my ambitions for fixing them up are pretty modest - more about making them playable than restoring. I’ve got a Beavertail mid-60s floor tom to complete the “set.”

But it’s super inspiring and fun to follow your craft in action. And I may just take my project up a notch now, somehow! Thanks for documenting and sharing.

Question: What heads are you planning to run on the kick?

Cheers

nk

NK,

Thanks alot. I am thinking of going with plain white coated heads, probably Remo Ambassadors. Don’t have them yet. No one around here carries much of what I want, so I typically have to order stuff or travel for it.

So as luck would have it, the very first lug I installed on the 13” split in two. It was the worst lug I had and I foolishly attempted to install it on the new wrap seam. Since you are not trying to restore your drums, can we maybe work a trade? I have the 12” tom, rims for it, and a few tension rods. I also have the badge, but no tone control. Would you be interested in trading your B & B lugs for it? That way I’d have a few spares. No worries if you want to hold onto them. I’ll find some somewhere.

Josh

Yeah, was thinking same tho maybe a fiberskyn or calftone reso, just bc i like that look ...

Ugh, sorry about your lug!

I'm open to some kind of trade, but I already have a 12" tom and (non original) rims for it. So if we traded, I'd wind up with two 12" tom shells/rims, but no lugs ... unless I'm misunderstanding?

The lug spacing on my 12" tom seems to be 1-1/4" hole to hole. Does that sound right / match up with what you have, Josh or anyone else with this era drums? Also, the outermost holes on one side of the drum are all right up against, or even a very tiny bit under, the re-ring. Hand-crafted :)

On the bass, the lug hole spacing is 2-1/4", i believe. Oddly, there are some 80s era beavertail lugs with these dimensions - both tom and bass - kicking around on Reverb. Is that a thing that people do, swap cracked B&Bs out for sturdier beavertails? I mean, I know it's sacrilege in terms of restoration ...

NK,

The holes on my drums are very weird: Some are not very circular, they are entirely too wide (large) for the size of screws involved, they don't line up particularly well with the holes in the lugs, and yes, some of them are partly under the reinforcement rings. In my case, one side of the bass drum is this way. They appeared to kind of whittle around the hole until there was enough clearance. Some of the holes for the mounting hardware was also hand-done, meaning the operator held a power drill in his hand rather than there being some sort of set-up where the drums were held in place and drilled by the push of a pedal or button. My Slingerlands are this way, too. Ludwig's holes seem to be very precisely machined, as a comparison.

I don't know what the hole spacing is on my drums, but I read that others have tried to find lugs that match the hole spacing without success.

I finished the bass drum patching. As you can see in the photos, I have left a little of the contact cement on the drum. If it's not lumpy, I figure it'll blend in without issue.

In order to level the plugs with the drum surface, I attached a few skids to my trim router with double-faced tape. This allowed me to extend a 3/8" straight cutting bit slightly below the router base. I could bring the plugs nearly level to the drum surface with this set-up. Then I gently sanded with 150 grit paper in my random orbit palm sander. You can see the results of this in the second photo. Afterwards, I filled the small holes with wood filler, and drilled a 7/16" hole for the badge. The third photo appears to show the tiny holes still there, but they are actually filled with darker wood putty.

I have covered the two toms with the Jammin Sam blue sparkle wrap. I don't know if it is necessarily the same color as the originals, but I think they look dang good. Once I have the whole shootin' match done, I'll take photos and post them.

Josh I had the same trouble with lugs on mine. There is a some inconsistency in the lug tabs. My guess each batch might varied a bit? Plus then when they crack they spread a bit. I didn't squeeze them together when I used the steel stick. You may have to use a rat tail file and hand fit each upper lug hole. Had to do this to about 80% of mine. What size lugs do you need and how many? I may have some spares in the larger size. LMK. Glenn.

Yep. You pretty much just described mine, too. Part of the charm, I'll call it!

In case anyone was interested, here is a photo of all of the plugs in the bass drum from the inside. This also shows some of the "whittled away" sections of the re-ring, as Noah (nk126) was talking about.

And yes, I am leaving the interior black for now. I intend to put plain white heads front and back, so no one should be seeing it. I just hate all that goes into removing the paint, especially when there is a paper Rogers label involved.

Didn't the Eagle badge shells have black painted interiors from the factory?

Check your PM when you can. Have 2 lugs for you.