There are several threads on here demonstrating that, with a little elbow grease and some new heads, an old MIJ drum can sound very good, if not great.
This is not one of those threads.
Here is an old Pearl stencil COS snare that I picked up for $20 (I'm calling it a 1969 because that's the year this strainer design was introduced in the Pearl catalogs, but I really have no idea what year it was actually made.) Bought it just 'cause I wanted a project (like I even needed another,) I thought it might clean up nicely, and I like the design of the strainer. I thought it would at least end up a fun player snare. I've also formed the opinion over the last few years that the Pearl stencil stuff is higher quality than the Star stuff. Well, this project has forced me to reconsider that position.
I used nearly every tip I've read about here on the forum in the restoration of this snare. And in doing a respectable restoration, I think I have succeeded. I polished the shell with metal polish by hand, I only used steel wool on a few very small rust spots on the rims, soaked the rusted parts in vinegar (which works incredibly well, by the way,) treated them in WD-40, soaked the t-rods in Dawn and warm water overnight, cleaned/polished the strainer and butt, de-rusted the interior with WD-40, lubricated the t-rods with 3-in-1 oil, and completed it with brand new heads and snare wires.
Basically, I did everything possible to make for a textbook restoration. And I should now be pleased with the results, but I'm not. So far, this thing does not sound good.
I tuned it up before attaching the snare wires. Certain lugs would tune up ok and sound open and resonant, but others (maybe the ones near the snare beds) either had awful overtones that wouldn't tune out, or the sound would choke out completely. I may have to mess with the snare wire tension, but so far I'm not pleased with the snare sound I'm getting, either.
I'm all but certain the problem originates with an issue with the shell itself. The seam on this shell is a disaster. It is messy as hell and ends up in 2 'bumps' on the bearing edges. I'm pretty sure that these bumps are the culprit in un-tunability of the drum. Anyway, I just got it set up tonight, but in the little time I've had with it, I was not able to get any kind of a useable sound.
Here's a couple pics of this nightmare edge.
