I guess if I want an invite, I'd better start spamming my posts... LoLoLoLo

There is a lot of info on this forum, thats for sure. Theres also lot of comedians too!Laughing H They probably wouldnt be doggin ya if you had put this on the Vintage Non USA forum.

Man, that's absolutely right... up to a point.

But if we continue with topics of this fashion, then what will we be talking about next year?

The price of drill bits at Lowes ??

And the next year?....

Maybe some handy tips on the "proper" installation of a Ludwig tom mount on a Camco bass drum ??....

Whomever can do whatever with their drums, they belong to them.

But this is not the proper arena for discussing modifying vintage drums.

Again, just my opinion here.... I'm sure others have their own as well.

Whats the big deal here? Latz aint hurtin anyone here kev:confused:. By the way. I get the black n decker drill bit set at lowes for $9.99. Each bit has a little smaller pilot bit on the end of it. They work great!!! Jump For Joy

I think the "big deal" as you put it poppy, is that most members of the forum are all about RESTORATION of vintage drums now, NOT doing modifications to them. Most of us are on the page of fixing the sins we did when we were younger....you know, like cutting that huge HONKING hole in that vintage Round Badge Gretsch or Slingerland Radio King bass drum for the Ludwig double tom mount?

I think that's where this was heading.....

I had lunch with a old drummer friend of mine yesterday. I was telling him about my newest restoration. I got my samples of the mod orange, citrus mod and Psychedelic Red. He was telling me about a Psychedelic Red Ludwig kit he had. He pulled the wrap off of it because he wanted a natural finish on the shells. The wrap took a lot of the top ply with it. He ended up sanding the top ply off of all the shells. Then the bass drum shell wasnt even strong enough to hold the tom holder with a tom on it, so he fiberglassed the inner shell and made a bracket to reinforce the shell to hold the tom. I was thinking what a travisty this is. he still has the kit. Hurting He was going to see a 40's luddy kit that belonged to a widow friend of his aunt's. anyway..... I'll keep my mouth shut about the modifications. Im just bored....

Wow! That one is a travesty!

No need to be mute about modifications, they do have there place. I personally think that this forum is not necessarily the place for them, well.....irreversible ones anyway....I mean, if you have a vintage snare with a damaged beyond repair strainer and you can't find one, or have been looking for years, that there is nothing wrong with modifying the drum using an ADAPTER plate for a more modern strainer until the correct replacement can be found. That kind of think I find acceptable, but randomly drilling holes in a drum for modifications.....I'm not ok with that myself. Converting perfectly good and usable concert toms into a standard tom would fall under the heading of "no, don't do it" in my book. Granted, the toms in question were just old Tama toms, but what if someone did that with an early 1970's Slingerland kit with a large row of the copper-clad finish or black-chrome finish concert toms? Is that ok to do?

Ok, I'm off the Soap Box

BTW, I find nothing wrong with your "conversion" project of those beat up Ludwig Standards to classic specs. There would be no extra holes drilled, you'd be fitting factory hardware to those existing holes, and you'd be re-wrapping in a "factory" finish. And they would still be Ludwigs. I mean, the finish was shot anyway, and I'm sure the Standard hardware/lugs probably all had issues like they do. The screws break the mountings off the lugs very easily on those Standard lugs when tightening them up, so fitting classic hardware would be an improvement. So, no harm, no foul on those mods in my book.

I'm sorry I asked this stupid question.

It wasn't a stupid question... there are no stupid questions.

Look at the forum banner:

Vintage drum forum

ask a question, get an answer

It's the answers that are stupid (no offense to any of the posters -- this is not intended to start a flame session). There are extremely limited rules about posting, and the guidelines about the topics/subjects are even smaller. Some of the concerns that were mentioned are a merely implied function/direction of the VDF site/community.

If there was clearer or more detailed rules then there would likely be fewer issues arising. If the forum section was called "Restoring Vintage Drums - Using only period correct parts, new old stock parts, original wraps stored in a secret vault for many years to make the drum exactly as it was delivered from the factory" then I'm sure you would have looked for a more suitable outlet for your inquiry.

There is a bunch of hair splitting about restoring as you have obviously have experienced. Most are stuck on only one simple definition/interpretation of the verb restore as: return to its original or usable and functioning condition

I saw your post as using another definition/interpretation of the verb restore as: return to life; get or give new life or energy

Not every drum needs to retain its original condition. I think it's perfectly OK to re-purpose or restore the drums to something you find far more useful. Heck Ludwig concert toms were cut with top/bottom bearing edges (see image) so that they could be used for either/or depending on the drum orders. So if even Ludwig didn't find a problem with it I'm not so sure why the membership does. Drums get re-wrapped differently (from orignal wrap) on a frequent basis but that doesn't seem to raise ire here.

Don't let the experience chase you outta' here.

Good point Hoppy, Poppy and Hoppy dont mind your question here Mike.

I built a set of kids drums a few yrs ago and got about 50 replies. No one said anything about me showing and telling all about building my kids drums on the restoring vintage drums forum.

After reading the concerns about you posting your question about your Tama's I feel lucky I didnt get ran off back then. I have several Ludwig concert toms and Hoppy is correct. Ludwig concert toms have a bearing edge on the bottom edge, even though there are no bottom lugs. Ludwig-Dude is also correct. The lugs on a concert tom are installed further from the edge of the shells than regular tom lugs. So, I learned 2 interesting things about Vintage Ludwig concert toms from this thread, therefore your question has taught me a few things about vintage Ludwig concert toms, thus Kevins (one of my favorite members) & Ludwig-Dude (another of my favs) This thread is about Vintage Drums, even if the initial question may not have been! Group Hug