I've been playing a ' 73 Hayman set since ' 73.Hayman have a very heavy polyurethane shell coating and it makes them loud as hell.The guy who helped develope that went on to work for Pearl witht thier first loud shells in the 70's.Back in the 80's I painted some old Ludwig shells with heavy plastic floor paint.Sparked those babies up good.Line them with maple veneer,lucite or hard paint.Loud drums save lives.

As I realize there are as many opinions as there are drummers. I just don't like coating my drums in plastic. I use lacquer because it is more or less a cellulose product, not a plastic, as such will allow the wood to continue to breath yet be protected and hardened at the same time.

As for the veneer, I have a kit that I have veneered inside and they have a totally new and different sound. This is a maple veneer with a fantastic coating of stained lacquer.

Mahogany. origin native American word mahagoni.

Family ; Meliaceae. Genus; Swietenia. examples; Swietenia Mahagoni

------------------------ Cuban Mahogany

Swietenia Macrophylla

Honduran Mahogany

American drum companies (notably Slingerland used these)

Genus; Khaya example; Khaya Ivorensis

Lagos Mahogany

English drum companies (Beverley(pre 1958), Premier used this)

Phillipine Mahogaqny

Family ; Merati Genus; Shorea. examples; Shorea Negrosensis

------------------- Red Luan

Japanese drum companies sometimes used this. It is critically endangered. It was virtually raped from the Phillipine rainforest to make everything from coasters to doors to boat trim to ping-pong paddles,to gift shop trinkets,to salad bowls,to, to very poor Japanese drums!

There are 196 species in the genus Shorea.Most are marketed as bogus Mahogany. Of these, 137 are either endangered or critically endangered. They are not mahogany. The wood superficially resembles mahogany so has been allowed the right under F.T.C. ruling 250.3 to be labelled mahogany as long as there is a descriptive qualifier such as "Phillipine". The wood generally, is light, coarse grained, splinters easily,is porous,fibrous,readily absorbs moisture,rots easily, qualities that in no way describe the characteristics of the Meliaceae or the true Mahoganies.Some of the rarer species have better qualities.The false cachet of " Mahogany" has no doubt contributed to the demise of many of the Shorea species, which have been piled together under the marketing blanket of Mahogany. It helps to delude the public into believing that there are limitless resources out there and that all is well in the cheap consumer goods world.

OK, it is obvious you don't like old MIJ drums. Other than that, what's your point?

Please, don't go on some holy war of everyone in the world raping the envirtonment. My first degree is in mining, and we good old Americans are among the best at raping our environment and covering it up, maybe.

actually, i don't really mind them. they have been very usefull up here in the frozen north. the Inuit have used them for years to store Walrus blubber in----they soak it up really good and get all tight and resonant.----- but that Commie , Pierre Trudeau( he had a Cuban Mahogany cigar box---personal gift from Fidel) started a big recycling program and collected and shipped them all to Alberta to be used for storing spent tar sands sludge in.Dick Cheney paid a personal visit to the site(looking after the family business you know) sometime ago,apparently remarking from his helicopter , how perfect and complete all the red and blue looked upon the white landscape. it's too bad the economy tanked because it was all set ,that a Feng Shui grandmaster,lo dow nnut was to arrange the entire site according to ancient wisdom.-----and then, there was the bearing edge scandal. an environmental fiasco but luckily caught in time.dare, I mention it? the bearing edges leaked and bits of sludge , some the size of marbles began to exude onto that pristine landscape that Dick Cheney himself had described as perfect. The Alberta and Canadian governments along with the principle shareholder Smell Oil moved fast and established a bearing edge refurbishing facility at Watamidoinhere on the edge of the Bering Strait. it was a total boon to the economy of the north and will be talked about for years to come. arguments abound and can get quite ugly at times, whether Bolero is better than Bingo or is it better to have a Crown than a Coronet? can Stewart outmuscle Apollo? or could Decca deck Del Ray?

deep questions indeed. but it is all coming to an end. the drums are drying up. we are beginning to look south for supplies. oh, they are out there allright---in closets, masquerading as wastepaper baskets, stickholders in music shops, as barstools or filled with concrete and rolling lawns. rumours abound about secret caches-----one ; that , Sees Morebucks has an old warehouse somewhere, dating from the late 60's, somewhere in the midwest, probably out in the middle of nowhere , maybe Nebraska, or perhaps, Idaho: just full of them, chocked to the rafters! there's red sparkle and blue sparkle and maybe some white sparkle and red sparkle and blue sparkle and red sparkle and and they are all vintage! WOW!

This guy if FUNNY!..Its got to be dunett,who else is that obnoxious,insulting,condescending,etc?...Being from the north myself i found that politically humorous.He sounds like if you meet him you either shake his hand or spit in his eye..Thx for the laugh!!Laughing H

Great disscusion guys.With open grain mahogany I've been afraid of dust and dirt getting stuck in the wood especially with a single head bass drum.Marine/floor paint breaths.You paint the top of your deck but not the under side,you leave that bare wood.We don't want to encapsulate the drum because it just becomes a plastic cylinder.My floor paint drums still have the sound we like and have been stablized.Just like the native folk.Weather proof them wood and let it breath.Lasts forever.

Boy, that's a lot of disdain, and a lot of creativity. Hmmm...

i have painted a few interiors shells on some of those stencil kits just to keep the drums in uniform cond. but only the rough shells. i used krylon primer grey to resemble rogers drums. and in the end i think it made the drums easier to tune with a little more bottom end. so they are your drums and they are made to look like american drums so give them a true classic look if thats what your looking for

just want to say you did real justice to that kit real nice work