I'm working on restoring my grandfather's old John Grey & Sons Broadway kit. It was in an attic for about 35 years. I don't have any experience with drums and am having trouble replacing the head of the mounted tom drum.
Here's the issue I need help with -
I need to replace the head on the mounted tom. I ordered a 12" replacement because the original John Grey Catalog lists the tom as 12"
here's an image from the catalog page
The 12" new head didn't fit. When I measured the shell from outside edge to outside edge, it came to exactly 29.5cm, that's 11.61".
Next, I measured the old original head. It too is about 11.6"
So my first question is: why is my mounted tom such a strange size?
and my more important question: what do I do about replacing the head?
I'd appreciate any info, help, or explanations. I'm a total novice .
[EDIT: UPDATE}
I remeasured the original head from rim to rim, it is 12", so I measured it wrong above.
The new 12" head will not fit in the hoop, but the old one does. I'm guessing the problem is with the hoop rather than the shell size.