hope this worked, this is just a cell phone shot to see the floor tom.

and to THINK, I was contemplating stripping the mylar down to the bare ply and staining it and clear coating it, boy would that have been a tragedy, the only tragedy was that the previous ownder had palm sanded the whole thing very hastily and left deeep scratches all the way, and the clear coat had been peeled. well that paint was on THICK and didn't want to give up it's hidden treasure so easily, I had to fight and concentrate with chemical stripper for HOURS! but when I caught a first glimpse of what was under there, I could hardly believe my eyes!

I have to keep a little oil on the wrap to give it a shine.

WOW, on a 20" floor tom? That is almost worth a fortune. And even though it is compromised due the Mr. Brainiac, you could still come back from the sale barn with a nice profit, just because it's a 20 in Red Psych...nice score. Did you go back and find the rest of them? Or atleast slap him upside de head?

Ta dah!

I give you... EXCALIBUR!

after completely re-building and packing the lugs with felt, oiling the shell, de-rusting the chrome, and cutting and fitting leather pads for the leg mounts.

I also should add, the skin was a fiddle to tune because of the warp, it's not a bad bulge, but it adds up on a 20'', the head needs constant re-fitting, but I'm hoping it will eventually succumb to someone who actually knows how to tune a skin, instead of leaving it all lop-sided and off balance for god knows how many abusive years it was in storage.

It sounded brand new compared to when I first got it, I couldn't believe the difference in the tone!!! Bingo bango bongo!!!!

No, the guy I bought it from said it came from new york and wasn't the original owner, but whoever sprayed it black does NOT want to bump into me.

The story has it, that it was aquired without the bottom rim and lugs, and a magical thing happened, the only 20'' rim to be found in the relative vacinity was lurking deep in the bowels of a musical "junk" shop (I should add, it's one of those time you can spell junk with a QUE...junque) the seller had somehow perchanced to take notice of the unusual 20'' rim lying around in that shop, and picked it up. Good eye! He told me It HAD to have been the original rim that was taken off it in the first place, he could just feel it.

yess, psychedellicnesss is just TOO COOL...This thing is pretty rare bird I gather, I was informed it was the last year Ludwig was putting out oversize type stuff, and that's a serious double whammy of AWESOME!

Ok so I knew this thing was worth probly around a Grand in new condition before I bought it, I had a vague idea of value because I know someone who ordered an 18'' tama floor tom (from the 90's) and It was nearly a grand, well over 800 dollars new, but I Had NO IDEA what the original wrap was!...If the seller comes by to see this thing the way it is NOW, he'll probably go into shock and would have NEVER in his right mind let this thing go! (what do you think It's worth now??? It's still a players drum)

ok time for me to get the next part of the story!

And Nowww, Phase 2 gentlemen!

from that point, it seemed like it was going to be a long road before I was going to find the rest of the peices that could do this thing some justice.

It was new years Eve, Andy, my guitarist picked me up from an ex-bandmate who I had not seen in the 3 years since our band split (I was begrudgingly reluctant to keep in touch because of the circumstances, things fell apart, but thats an entirely seperate can of worms)

We drove back to Burlington on the freeway, And I'm always scrounging like the name says..So for some kicks to pass the time, I suggested we stop in at the buy and sell (Andy had JUST missed out on a really awesome guitar and was complaining to me over the phone like I never thought It was going to end) I explained why it's important to strike when you see something, and know it for what it is when you come across it! well, He wasn't too interested in returning to the scene of his last mission failure. I managed to convince him, and well, It got pretty intense from the moment we took 5 steps into the Buy and sell.

The next thing you know, your unexpectedly staring at the chrome badge of a rogers kit.

it appeared to be complete at first, but on closer inspection it was 3 different rogers kits mashed together, covered in grotty white mack-tack with with sea gulls and palm trees (like I said, looked like the cover of Mr. bungle's California) I had a friend who's dad was a jazz drummer and taught me much about rogers drums, I was beggining to get a little stirred up at this point.

the condition of the kit was appauling at best, I couldn't begin to describe the type of neglect I was seeing. it looked like crap at first because someone had turned everything into concert toms ( I regret not taking a picture of it looking so badly) it was 2, 15'' rack toms, an 18'' floor tom, 24'' (shallow..not deep, whats the correct term again?) kick drum with a big warp in the rim, and a 14''x 6'' dynasonic snare (I hadn't done my homework on rogers at this point but I just felt the weight of it and KNEW I'd struck paydirt)

since I hadn't seen a rogers kit in over 10 years I knew it was SOMETHING.

well, they were asking 275, I was broke and Andy Is a stinge-bag, It almost didn't happen, we left the store, and later in the evening it dawned on me that it was a SERIOUS investment, I got agitated (like always) and snarled at Andy to march his little fanny upstairs and check ebay if he didn't think it was a good deal, he came back white as a ghost and we couldnt sleep all night long.

went back and they had knocked the price down to 200, done deal!!!

Excited Excited Excited

I took off the wrap on one of the rack toms to reveal that CLASSIC cherry porterhouse red stain. Andy was begginging to finally see the light...but slower than you'd think. the other one was red, I took off the top hoop and lugs of that one to make one decent rack tom and put the rest of it back together, the warp in the kick rim, fixed itself instantly.

the kick and floor tom were the only peices to match, the had a blue finish showing through in spots, well...I can't get into much else from here, I'll let the pictures do the rest hopefully, Big R series...dynasonic snare, and 50 bucks later for a new "snare" peice (the special order type) I had the music store guy completely GREEEN!!!

ok long and short, I stripped the kick with a heatgun eventually, and got the painted rims stripped, they were yucky greyish white, another fine peice of fine work from your morons-anonymous that needed un-doing.

I taught andy how to use the heat gun and he did the floor tom all by himself like a big boy!

mitch our drummer friend was SO impressed, he gave us free cymbals and stands for the kit!!! now that is RUH-SPECT!

I told andy to buy him a case of beer, he gave him well over half a grand worth of brass, and chrome!!!

ok ok, just take a look (hang on a minute!)

Andy is now another converted believer!

Hallelujah!

well, the mount on the kick and Rack tom's weren't the original bowtie style, and the rack in the picture is a little older than the rest, but hey, I don't think you'll be hearing a peep out of me.

I'm sad when I realize I'm not going to be around forever to enjoy this kit!

yup, there's me, heh, too much to handle a kit that size, Triplet Triplet boom boom!

I couldn't resist throwing that up, I've been pushing it to the max DUUUDE!

all I can say is; "a-heee heee"

not exaclty a BIG restoration job, but I still have lots of bits and peices to track down to get it back to it's true glory.

I had to re-think my whole style of EVERYTHING, I used to be too much of a tool for the underhand jazz techniques of the likes of buddy rich, but I've converted just because I got no excuse now.

time to get my syncopated style in top gear.

(one last thing man, the floor tom had the original rogers skin still intact, Whats THAT thing worth?)

only problem is I got to use Big-juice marching sticks...heh, TOTAL RUH-SPECT if you've managed to read this far, time to give yourself a well deserved kit-kat break.

Thanks again!!!

-J

oh yea, here's an Idea of some of the stuff we got rockin'.

for all you gear heads out there...and that's Andy enjoying the view.

if you can't quite see, it's a 66 Traynor YBA-1 head, with a Roland Dc 30 Analog chorus/delay, and A pair of vintage SG style bass and guitar, the 6 string is a 60's "Marlin" SG, Import, and A 1972-ish SG (shorty scale) 4 string (It says Pearl on the stock) through the Combo YBA-4 Traynor, you can kind of see the top of a Sony TC-530 open reel by the couch.

Oldschool, we are analog for life!