Mark,

I couldn’t find any new ones, even from Yamaha. I took them off of the 15 and 16. I am still four short for doing the 10” tom, so I ordered some Slingerland replicas for that. I hope to eventually locate enough proper Yamaha lugs to replace the imposters AND make the 16” concert tom into a floor tom. Getting the long double-ended ones would be ideal for that.

For hoops, I just ordered Gibralter 2.3mm ones. I think I will post a WANTED TO BUY ad for the lugs.

Josh[/QUOTE]

I had a feeling that you borrowed the lugs from other drums. I hope you can find more!

-Mark

Amazing work! I've learned SO much! Thank you!

Brian

Great description Josh. Would have been an excellent Youtube video.

There is a Yamaha style lug that is pretty close, but not exact. Would look better than Slingerland lugs though.

https://www.drumfactorydirect.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_9_83&products_id=2295

Thanks, everyone. So far, the 12 and 14 sound pretty good. The 10 is only 6 1/2” deep, so I will have to offset the lugs. I hope it has enough depth so that it doesn’t sound choked. I’ll update when I receive the parts and complete the project.

Thin Shell, I saw those lugs but rejected them because they were a lot shorter than the originals. But maybe I should buy enough to do the entire 10” drum and not mix them? Hmmmm…

The DFD lugs look like those originally used on the Maple Custom Absolute drums. As noted, the DFD lugs are shorter and might just work on the 6.5" deep shell without having to use them in an offset alignment.

-Mark

Already measured them out. If I used one current hole for mounting, the other hole would be visible below the lug. I am not averse to drilling new holes, but I wouldn’t want any holes to show on the exterior of the drum.

I got the Slingerland lugs, and guess what? They, too, are too short to cover up the existing holes! There went my plan to place the four non-conforming lugs on the player’s side so they wouldn’t be seen. It turned out okay, as the lugs generally mimic the overall shape of the original Yamaha ones. See the photo.

One thing had not occurred to me until I put both heads on the 10” tom: no vent holes. It didn’t seem to matter on the 12 and 14, but I can definitely feel and hear the difference on so small a drum, particularly since it is so shallow. I need to think about this. This is my opportunity to place a badge on the drums that doesn’t belong. Maybe a custom made one at one of those “We engrave anything” shops? Or maybe just a drilled hole with a plain grommet, which is what the floor tom has.

Either way, I am extremely happy about my decision to add a bottom head to those toms. They sound great, and I haven’t really spent much time on tuning them. The 14 sounds so much better since I leveled the bearing edge.

Eventually, I will probably convert the 16” floor tom, which is only 14” deep. It should be a good step between the 10x14 and 16x18.

I bought some screw-on vent grommets to put on all of the converted toms. Instead of trying to get them each exactly centered, I just centered them underneath one of the badges and didn’t worry about center top to bottom. I bought them from Drum Factory Direct. Super speedy delivery!

I think they look good and the 10 and 12 showed marked improvement.

This is great. These types of posts are what drew me to this forum.

You are doing everything right. Nice to see. That kit is getting good treatment.