You might recall that I picked up a 1971 Ludwig Hollywood 5 piece set in Psychedelic Red a couple months back.

I tend to prefer to play sets in a one up two down configuration, particularly with 14" and 16" floor toms. I figure my chances of finding a matching 14x14 are slim, and my chances of being able to afford it if I ever did even slimmer (although obviously I will keep looking, it's what I do). I figured that if I wanted a 14" floor tom my best option would be to create one. Fortunately Bum Wraps has recreated the wrap and it's pretty close to the original. Actually they offer four different variations of Psych Red from full on to full faded (no green at all). I chose the "more Blue" variant for this project as to my eye it looks the closest to the original (or at least the version of the original that is on my particular drums).

Rather than strip an original 3 ply 14x14 (bound to be an expensive proposition) or creating one from an aftermarket shell (in which case the Keller shell and all the required Ludwig parts can also add up very quickly) I opted to redo an older 6 ply Ludwig power tom. This was a 13x14 complete drum from 1984 that was originally a mounted tom using Modular hardware. These deep and heavy drums aren't especially popular these days, especially with the modular mount on them and therefore relatively inexpensive. I also don't feel too guilty about re-doing them even though I suppose someday they might be the vintage drums people are hunting for (maybe if hair bands ever come back into vogue). The biggest downside of this (and other drums of the same vintage) is that Ludwig went over the top on the number of lugs they used. This 14 had 10 lugs for each head. Fine for a snare drum but kind of overkill for a tom that is most likely going to be tuned as low as possible. I was going to go ahead and use it like that but it looked odd next to my 8 lugged 16" floor tom so I filled in the extra holes and redrilled it for 8 lugs. I filled in the large hole created by the modular mount with fiberglass and also drilled it for leg mounts.

The Bum Wrap is intended to be taped on just at the seam but I glued it on the shell like regular wrap (using 3M 30NF contact cement). I did use the installed tape to seal the seam. Once on the drum the wrap looks the same as any other wrap. While I believe the printed part of the wrap is done on paper it is sealed between two layers of clear plastic and, although it is a bit thinner than traditional wrap it seems to work just as well and is just as shiny.

Anyway, here is a comparison photo of the finished product. I think it turned out great and will certainly work for the intended purpose (a 14" floor tom to gig with). In person, to the naked eye, it looks even closer to the original than in this photo (the camera seems to have slightly emphasized the slight differences). I'm sure it's as close as anyone could hope to come to replicating a 50 year old wrap that had a lot of variation even when new, and also is very prone to fading. Here is also a photo of the tom in its original configuration.

No one is likely to ever confuse this with a vintage original upon even a cursory examination of the interior of the drum but from an audience (and sound man perspective) it will definitely fill the bill. I'm happy with the results.