A friend of mine had that exact problem. He decided that serviceability was more important than originality. He strongly regrets his decision and wishes he'd never drilled holes in his shell.

I'm filling the holes for him and fitting the OEM spurs.

The bottom line is that it's your drum and you're the one who will be playing it, so it's yours to drill/not drill. As a collectible, it may have lost most of its value with the previous alterations you mentioned (depending on how severe they are), but, if you're planning on keeping it forever, then the value of its use-ability is exclusively to your advantage.

The old gull-wing spurs were problematic. There's no doubt about that -especially for "hard hitters". But, here are some alternatives to consider:

Sell the bass drum as-is with a few extra holes(?) and use the money towards the purchase of a different bass drum that has better spurs.

Or:

Get one of those little "spike" things that clamps onto the lower front edge of the front bass drum hoop and helps prevent forward movement.

Or:

Put everything on a rug -like a gig rug or a rubber-backed rug. (That's what I do.)

Or:

Get one of those "cradles" (lots of different brands...or you can build your own) and put the bass drum in it. That way, it should be really stable and wouldn't add any extra holes to your drum.

Burger Kin

I bought a spike on e-bay for my old Luddy bass. It works AND it looks cool.

The one I bought was an old Ludwig, not the same era logo as my '66 kit, the newer type, but it is still vintage.......

Guess You better listen to the vintage gurus arround here, but when that´s said, Gibralter offers GREAT valoue for money. I just fitted my 24", 1980 Tama Imperialstar (The Stewart Copeland one) with brand new Gibraltar spurs, and I have to say that it feels nice - just for a change - to get in touch with some hardware newer than 30 years old. It´s simply amazing how well it works, and how good it looks - at a very fair price.

- Still I wouldn´t go for them on my 26", 1972 Slingy, though they would probably work better than the 4 (?) original spurs.

- It´s always a ballance - at least for freaks like us - between maintaining the vintage gear in it´s original form, and on the other side, keeping it working as a playable instrument.

- Follow your heart, but keep an eye on the Gibraltar guys - they happen to come up with some great solutions.

Yours Carsten M

If you want to use new spurs without drilling holes, mount another piece of wood drilled for both sets of holes. Bolt to the shell with carriage bolts and use carriage bolts in the spacer to hold the new spurs in place, countersunk so they don't come in contact with the shell. Even use felt to avoid direct shell contact all together to protect the wrap. That way if you want to go back to original, there are no extra holes to account for.

I have seen this as a way to update a throwoff without drilling, so don't see why it wouldn't work on spurs. You could even put fender washers on the insie of the bd shell if you are worried about pressure on the shell.

That is a great idea! Or how about drilling out the Gibraltor spurs to the hole spacing of the drum.

I got a set of new gull wings from Danmar, no probs.

(Like many, one of the original spurs -- but only one -- had gone missing.)

I wrestled with your question this last winter. I even came close to buying a set of Dunnett Gullwings, but the diameter is greater and I don't have the gear to bore out the Ludwig brackets.

The old gull wings are not great stoppers on their own. Agree with the carpet strategy.

Have fun

Patrick