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Old rack tom w/ calf heads - any ideas?

Posts: 1040 Threads: 106

Howdy, guys, I recently purchased two Amati rack toms. One of them is from late 60s/early 70s and I bought it for a kinda higher price than would be reasonable, but it's in an unusual finish and I was missing this exact drum in my set, and also, the seller listed it as a drum for hockey fans, which was sending some nasty shivers down my spine, you know what I'm talking about. It's out of round, dirty, the finish is a little bit yellowed and there are some splits in the shell, but it sounds great as it is, so I'm just going to clean it, glue it, and no problems here. Reason I'm talking about it here at all is because I wanted to share a photo of how I got it from the post. The guy just shoved it into a plastic bag, smacked on a sticker with an address and off it went!! Eye Ball Ugh...

Anyway, I bought another tom, too, and this one is quite interesting. It's from early 60s, I think. Has got sticksaver hoops and plastic lettered logo, but the hardware is nickel-plated, no floating inserts in lugs, has got an ancient tom mount, it's metric and has CALF HEADS.

The drum itself is in quite rough shape - some splitting plies, little cracks around the lugs, shell out of round, the lacquer is toast and the heads themselves are quite beat up, but oh boy does it sound awesome!! It's my first drum with calf heads and now I finally know what everyone was talking about!!

So I got a few questions as for restoration and maintenance of this drum.

I'll glue the plies together, probably leave those cracks alone, as they are small and I don't think there's anything that can be done about them, I'll polish the hardware, BUT

-What should I do with the lacquer? It's scratched,, dirty, discolored, seems beyond salvation to me. It looks kinda cool, but it also looks like the drum had some kinda disease... should I leave it alone, or try to clean it (how?), or sand it off and re-paint, or maybe stain the drum?

-How should I treat those calf heads? They got some rust on them and they have wrinkles from heavy playing, but they hold and sound great. How do I keep them this way? Should I moisturize them somehow?

BTW, those are not extra holes, just holes for mufflers, which were missing some parts, so I removed them untill I get the parts.

Any and all opinions and replies welcome and appreciated!

Jan

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Sysl krysu nenahradi!

-196?-72 6ply White Oyster Amati
-1960s 3ply Red Sparkle Amati
- Zildjian, Paiste, Zyn, Istanbul

http://bandzone.cz/blueswan
Posted on 10 years ago
#1
Posts: 558 Threads: 60

Shea butter, leather conditioner or other type of natural moisturizer on your finger tips gently rubbed in the skin should help to bring a little bit of life back to it but nothing beats a fresh and new skin.

Posted on 10 years ago
#2
Posts: 417 Threads: 22

From CT Pro Percussion

Shea butter, leather conditioner or other type of natural moisturizer on your finger tips gently rubbed in the skin should help to bring a little bit of life back to it but nothing beats a fresh and new skin.

I am not sure that this is advisable. I would never do that to my calf heads, and I have read on several places that you should not ever use conditioners or grease etc on calf drum heads.

If they are dirty, wash them with water, taking care not to get the folds on the edges wet, which may cause the skin to slip of the hoop.

/Magnus

Posted on 10 years ago
#3
Posts: 558 Threads: 60

I have used shea butter on the skin heads of many of my hand drums for years and it has always worked well. It is a very minuscule amount that I use, just enough to keep it from drying out. The products I use are natural and made specifically to be used on leather / skin / animals based products.

Where did you read otherwise? I would like to check it out.

Posted on 10 years ago
#4
Posts: 417 Threads: 22

From CT Pro Percussion

I have used shea butter on the skin heads of many of my hand drums for years and it has always worked well. It is a very minuscule amount that I use, just enough to keep it from drying out. The products I use are natural and made specifically to be used on leather / skin / animals based products. Where did you read otherwise? I would like to check it out.

No problem. In the Rebeats Calfskin Head Book, for one. On p 2, there are some quotes from a booklet by American Rawhide:

"There are no magic head restoratives. Use only water on heads. Vaseline, oils or any so-called restoratives only damage them."

/Magnus

Posted on 10 years ago
#5
Posts: 558 Threads: 60

From Magnus_N

No problem. In the Rebeats Calfskin Head Book, for one. On p 2, there are some quotes from a booklet by American Rawhide:"There are no magic head restoratives. Use only water on heads. Vaseline, oils or any so-called restoratives only damage them."/Magnus

That would be correct, Vaseline, oils, petroleum based products etc. Shouldn't be used. Shea butter and leather conditioners are natural based products and were designed specifically for what I use them for. The Shea butter trick was something I learned from percussionists that play a lot of hand drums and has been used for far longer than I have been alive. I use these products for maintenance of heads only. A head that is 50+ years old is brittle and can break much easier because the natural oils in the skin have dried out. The natural oils are what give a new calfskin head the warmth and bounce the calf is prized for. Heads dry out over time a this just helps to prong that a little.

Posted on 10 years ago
#6
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