Hi, looking for tips/help on staining my gretsch round badge toms. I recently got a 18 gretsch bass drum in walnut lacquer. I'd like to take my 12 and 14 round badge toms and try to match them to the bass drum. I've called 2 different furniture repair men to see if they would do the job, no return response from either. So I may do this myself, depending on the response I get. I've been asking anybody who might know anything and have got the same response. -Maple is very hard to stain, you need to soak maple to open open the pores. I can't soak a drum in water obviously. So my questions are 1. Are the gretsch walnut lacquer outer ply something besides maple? Is it really that hard to do? 2. Matching the stain, I was told Sherwin Williams could do a computer match if i take the bass drum in. 3. Is the lacquer nitrocelluse? (not sure of the spelling, but I know it starts with nitro) This drum is from the 80's, so its a jasper shell, It was virgin so I fitted it out to look like a round badge with a spare round badge bass. Was there a different lacquer at this point? 4. Prepping the shell. Whats the best way to go about stripping and sanding the shell? Use a glue stripper or just sandpaper? Ive never done anything like this, so any info at all would help. Many thanks, again any tips would be great.

Keith