Fellas, need your help!!! Please read the below and tell me what YOU would do:
So....I am assembling an all 1960s Gretsch set in classic old blue sparkle.
I have a nice 20 inch bass shell, already covered in blue sparkle wrap. Wrap is one of the "2 piece" jobs, with the seperate piece on the bottom, but that was gretsch factory issue, so, its ok.
Heres the problem:
Along the line, some genius installed a Ludwig tom tom mount on the shell. So he drilled the large hole for the center post and the 4 little holes for the mount. So my nice Blue Sparkle shell has this ugly set of extra holes dead center, which will just not do. I have, and will use , the original Gretsch Rail consolette mount which is going back on the shell, to the left of the ugly extra holes.
The way I see it, I have several options:
1) Rip off the existing Blue Sparkle wrap, fill the holes with dowels and wood filler, sand the bare shell, and rewrap in one large piece of new Blue Sparkle wrap. This way is the most work and will take several days.
2) Remove only the top piece of the wrap, fill the holes, then rewrap the top with new Blue Sparkle wrap. Faster and would look very nice.
3) Cut a diamond shaped "patch" of Blue Sparkle wrap, fill the holes, and glue the patch over the filled holes. Very fast, and the drum would retain the older look of the original wrap. Down side.....the patch would be fairly visible.
4) Get a metal tom tom mount plate (like on the Gretsch toms) and cover the holes. (it just so happens, that a Gretsch mounting plate fits perfectly)
Downside...might look wierd?
5) Cut out the affected area of the old wrap, fill the holes, then glue a patch that fits right into the cutout to make it less visisble (no "rise" since its not over any old wrap) Down side.....hard to do correctly. Upside- should look ok.
6) Get a metal plate that fits over the hole and screw a cymbal mount (I have one already) to it, allowing for a cymbal to be mounted on the bass drum, in the middle and at an angle, just like the old 50s and 60s guys did.
*****I'm really thinking of doing this. The shell already has the holes in in.
NOTE: Down the line, I may very well want to sell this set and buy a Trixon Telstar, which is the set I have always wanted. So, maybe that affects what I should do NOW with the bass drum from the point of resale value.
So guys.....whats your take? All the other drums are in great, nice original shape.
Please take a minute and let me know your thoughts,
Thanks!
Retro