Hello and welcome!

I don't believe that your 13" rack tom suffers from delamination conc. the decay. If it's in your hand ringing and stops when mounted, it's a clear advice (for me) that you should use any rim system. I've faced a similar effect with my Royal Star rack toms.

Here's a post of mine where I describe how I solved the prob. (Attention: my way is a little bit costy ... - any other rim should solve the prob as well.)

http://forum.tama.com/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=9870

Ralf

Thanks!

I have considered some sort of rim mount for the tom, and will probably pick one up eventually.

My concern regarding the delamination is more geared towards the fact that the toms refuse to stay in tune. Of course, it could be the bearing edges or just my amateur tuning, but does/can delamination cause drums to go out of tune? Is it imperative that it be repaired?

There are soooooo many things it could be. Here are some of the things I'd check to start with:

[list]

[*] Are the heads balanced (in tune from lug to lug)?

[*] Are the rims flat and round? Bent rims can cause major tuning headaches.

[*] Are the bearing edges true and in good shape? Set the drum down on a perfectly flat surface (pane of glass, countertop, table saw, etc.) to make sure there aren't any dips or warps.

[*] Are the shells in round? With the heads off, measure from lug to lug across the drum. The measurements at each lug ought to be pretty darn close.

[/list]

When you say delamination, do you mean the outer plastic wrap is lifting from the drum or the plies of wood are separating from one another? Wrap lifting is no big deal -- it shouldn't have any discernible affect on sound or tuning. I suppose ply separation could have an affect, but it's easily fixed with some wood glue and clamps.

As for how the drums were previously stored... Unless the wood is damaged or the drums are warped, they probably survived the ordeal just fine. Typical indoor ranges of heat and humidity, even in a garage, shouldn't normally screw up a drum.

Thanks for the reply!

- The heads are balanced lug-to-lug, at least they are to my ears at the time of tuning.

- The batter side hoops are new Gibraltar 2.3 flanged hoops, I assume they are flat and round. The reso side hoops are the originals - I'll check both then I change heads this weekend.

- I do recall one or two very minor dips in the bearing edges. The bearing edge also seemed slightly "rounded over" to me. I don't have any reference point, so I don't know what the edges on this particular make/model/year are supposed to feel like. All the kits I've had in the past had "sharper" bearing edges.

- I'll measure lug-to-lug to see how round the shell is.

The inner ply of the 13" tom has started to separate from the rest, at either end of the inner seam. As far as I can tell, the worst of the two (reso side) has separated about an inch or so along the seam (if that makes any sense).

You need to pick up lug locks of some kind-either the nylon ones that lock the square agaist the rim,or the knurled wheel that locks the rod to the lug.Does one lug detune worse than others?Lock them against turning first.Or,just test the theory with some 12/24 nuts wound onto the lug all the way up,then wound down to lock it against the insert.This is very often the problem-either over lubed or just plain worn rods or lugs.

We had a discussion earlier about the decay issue.Try moving the omni-ball to different angles-prefferably "flatter/less angle and see what happens.Just as a test.I had to partially flatten out the angle and raise the stand to get optimum sustain,within reason.

So I checked the shells this weekend -

The bearing edges are level with a few exceptions. There is a minor dip in the batter side of the 13" tom, and a couple minor dips in the reso side of the floor tom. The shells are both out of round by about 1/16". Rims are level and even.

I experimented with different angles/positions of the rack tom, and I seem to have found a position that keeps choking to a minimum.

Batter heads are still going out of tune, after spending a ton of time checking and re-checking pitch from lug to lug. I'm going to try either the lock nut idea, or nylon washers between the rod and rim.

Thanks for the replies!