Looks pretty good here. Pity about the chrome. I'm used to dealing with that on the Kent drums I've worked on. Their rims were cheaply made - Thin with a minimal amount of chrome. I've replaced a couple which were beyond hope with some nice 2.3 mm super hoops from drummaker.com. They are 110% better than the original Kent hoops.
I've not dealt with Jammin Sam, but that's where I plan on getting the WMP wrap for the Cortley set. There has been a lot of discussion about how to properly re-wrap a kit. With the older US made kits, the entire wrap was glued to the shell. With Ludwigs, they even tucked the wrap into the seam of the shell.
With most of the import kits, the wrap is usually glued/taped down at the seam only. This was the case with both of my Cortley kits.
Both methods have their good and bad points. For me, I'm perfectly happy with the import method of gluing at the seam, as it allows you to remove the wrap quite easily if you later decide to rewrap again. The only downside I've seen with the import style wrap method is, if the drum is exposed to high heat (say, leaving the drum in a very hot car, baking in the sun), the wrap can bubble up and distort at the lugs.
Yes, it actually happened to the silver Cortley kit, which is why I decided to re-wrap it, but I should have known better in the first place. NEVER leave a drum of any kind, in severe cold or heat. DOH!!!
The reason your wrap looks different from the WMP sample you posted is due to age. The older wraps were subject to fading and discoloration due to time, the sun, etc... New wrap supposedly does not do this. My champagne sparkle Kent set left the factory as a silver sparkle set. 40 years or so have caused the base color of the wrap to darken, leaving the color more of a tan. The actual sparkles seem to change as well as they appear more of a golden color now. I was stunned the first time I removed a lug and saw the original color.
With the older WMP, the wrap tends to yellow with age, which is what you are seeing on your Boston kit I believe. Pull one of the leg mounts off the floor tom and you should see a much whiter color to the wrap.
I will likely go with the Vintage Marine Pearl from jamminsam, but every time I browse the site, I think "hmmm... that gold sparkle is pretty nice too" - LOL!!!
I think the only pics I had of the old Cortley kit are long gone and the silver kit was totally boring to begin with. Hopefully, I can start on the Cortley kit soon... I just need to stop buying those damn Kents!!!
