Awhile ago I cut down a 25" bass drum to 22" - I didn't want to pay for calfskin [both heads had rotted at bottom], but did want to play it. The cut-down went well, with the outer skin curling in on itself once the rings were removed [they practically fell off]. I glued the skin together with an overlap and re-installed the rings, poof! Used the drum for a couple of shows.
Well I hated that I overlapped the shell - a crinkle in the heads resulted, requiring higher tuning than if the shell joined smoothly. Always meant to correct that and since we are moving this month I thought I'd get it done before the new place.
But once I had it re-cut I couldn't help wondering if I could get it down to 20" - it's my preferred BD size and one of the 10 T-rods didn't match the others; if I made it a 20" I'd only need 8. Plus I've never seen a 20" single-tension BD from the 30's...
Today I did the job, using the threaded rod technique I used to turn a 14" snare into a 13" snare [see that thread if you can find it]. I used skin sections left over from the first cut-down, glued and screwed em in there real tight. We'll see how the round is when the rod comes out but it's looking pretty good.
I did hear some cracking whilst applying pressure but that turned out to be one of the "plates" I used at each end, sections from a cut up Ludwig CS shell. I'll post pics when it's all together. This is so cool - I can use this now for bistro gigs with a blonde 8X12" Slingerland tom I picked up a few years ago...if only I could've got it down to 18" :)
Mitch
