I considering a project to wrap my 65 jazz fest in some vintage wrap. It came to me with no wrap but is a great drum. My question is what would be a suitable source of the donor wrap which I appreciate would be a big challenge. I appreciate that floor toms are the obvious choice. But I have the opportunity to get a bassdrum shell, 20x14 in my favourite vintage wrap. Has anyone done this with a donor of this kind. I don’t mind applying the wrap in a number of pieces, I will need to of course. Is this a viable approach?
Vintage wrap donor for jazz fest snare
Im not sure how much vintage wrap is available out there. It would be hard to remove wrap from a floor tom or bass drum and re-use it and you would be ruining a perfect drum in the process. You should consider new wraps in my opinion.
Thank you!
Jeff C
"Enjoy every sandwich" Warren Zevon
Don’t worry I would only consider a beyond repair drum. The shell I’m considering is badly water damaged as well as having a big gouge out of it. It’s well beyond repair. Anyone else have experience of this type of work?
My experience is extremely limited, and it really only extends to removing old wrap. One of the best investments in tools that I ever made (and I’ve made alot!) was buying a Wagner heat gun. With it, I have been able to remove pearl wrap from a drum in one piece. The other critical tool you’ll need is patience!
Thanks. That is helpful advice.
my thoughts on this would be find a marching 14" shell with your choice of wrap, after carful thought cut your snare out of the center of shell on table saw, then reinstall your re-rings, perfect snare.
What is your favorite vintage wrap? I just sent some strips to Spain for a forum member. Don't let anybody dissuade you, this is exactly the cool thing to do with old shells. Finding the donor wrap is just a question away.
Please share your results with us, I for one am interested to see how easy or difficult it is to obtain vintage wrap. It can be done, I bought a piece of silver sparkle of ebay from a Gretsch drum to plug holes in a Camco drum and it matched perfect, had the exact ginger ale effect and everything.
Another experience I had was fixing a Slingerland snare that had sat on its side for a very long time. That one I had hoped to remove the wrap, fix the drum then re-apply it. That did not go well, I think the wrap stretches when you heat it up and pull on it to get it off. It did not fit, not even close.
I would love to get my hands on some vintage black diamond pearl for my project. Never considered it thinking it just wont be available. So Im interested in seeing how this goes for you.
Good luck to ya!
Thank you!
Jeff C
"Enjoy every sandwich" Warren Zevon
Thanks all for the supportive comments. I will keep you all posted of course on what I Lee an from the process. My favourite vintage wrap? 60s Black Oyster perhaps predictably. Would anyone have some they would consider selling?
I had considered doing this to create an oyster black jazzfest ( back before I bought an original one). The main stumbling block for me was the unknown as to whether you can "harvest" the wrap off another drum or not. On some vintage drums the wrap will almost peel right off, on others there is pretty much no way you're getting the wrap off without destroying it in the process ( which usually isn't an issue on a drum you want to rewrap) . In the case of obp the issue for me was that even drums that are in very rough shape sell for a premium. I was never willing to pay enough for a drum that MIGHT provide enough wrap to do a snare given that there was about an even chance I couldn't get a usable piece of wrap off it, and would certainly destroy the value of the donor in the process.
Now if you can find a drum where the wrap is already practically falling off the drum or a piece of wrap that somebody already removed in one piece then you can probably get yourself a vintage drum in the vintage wrap you desire, although on a pre-1968 drum the scarf joint will still give it away.
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