Hi everyone (I'm the owner of the shells).

Wow! They look great!

I can't wait to get these back (but by all means Jeff take your time).

I have attempted several times in the past to replicate the finish but my skills in such matters are amateurish at best. I saw examples of Jeff's excellent work on this forum so here we are...

The kit that these drums will join was my first and favorite drum set and yes the 8 ply 6mm maple shells sound great both live and in the studio!

Dang Jeff. Killer as usual. So can you take an existing stained kit and re-stain it a different color or would one be better off starting with a wrapped shell and then hope the exterior ply is good looking, or are you adding a finish ply... W

Oh...what the heck are you doing?

I have a DW kit in ebony oil finish that needs some additional friends and I have been looking for a couple of years. I am not so excited about spending $1,400 on a new kick drum but may have to. Basically I am looking for an 8", 18" and a 24". Possibly a 20" as well. I am wondering if this is an option?

Hi Mike! glad you like the match. The color is spot on I think. There is a little difference in the grain patterns from the origional to the new ones but I cant change that. I will get a clear on them today, and get them shipped out in the next couple days.

Thanks Scott! These shells were sent to me pretty much as you see them in the unfinished photo. Some drums, like these Pearls have wrap that was only taped at the seems and the outer ply is a nice maple or birch. Others, as you know have wrap glued all the way around. If your careful you can sometimes get that wrap off, remove the glue and finish the origional ply. On this one we did not add any veneer or anything, just finished to match the origional drums as close as possible.

They look excellent. Any difference looks to be primarily from the figuring of the wood.

Scott,

I did some research and found out that the wrapped maple and birch pearl drums of this era are applied with tape and usually worthy of a lacquered finish. The beauty about finding a shell with a taped on wrap is that the wraps are easy to remove (once the grommets are off) and the wood underneath is pretty much ready to refinish once the tape residue is removed (Jeff may want to elaborate on this). The wraps had a lot of wear on mine but the wood underneath was in great shape.

I had been searching online in vain for about 5 years to find these matching drums in the right size and color and it is yet to happen so I decided to acquire shells regardless of the color and have them redone professionally. Removing a taped on wrap is much easier than a stained finish and much less labor intensive too.

Hopefully you can find a shell that works for you.

Here is the finished product.

Couple more pics before I ship these back. My rep from my finish supplier stopped in today and was very impressed with the results.

Mike, please post pics of all the drums after you get them together.

Thanks for the job!

Jeff C

Extremely classy work Jeff. I think that was my favorite Pearl color when that came out.

Thanks Scott! Yes it is a really nice color, Mike will have an awsome kit with these additions.

Thanks again!

Jeff C