When enough of us are cracked and peeling..........the rewrap craze will begin.

Hello all... OK, I'll put my :2Cents: into this. But first, some background. Being retired gives me the opportunity to really think about where we are and what we are doing. I used to own an antique clock shop, and am (was) a trained, certified clockmaker. I also do amateur radio, mostly with vintage 50's and 60's tube type equipment. When my wife and I were first together, her wish was to get a vintage Mustang, so we did. I enjoy vintage drums, 'cause I'm vintage I guess... I think I've been in contact with more different types of collectors than many folks, simply because of where I've been. First, in every collecting endeavor, numismatics to miniature horses, the prize is an unmolested, never seen the light of day, untouched by human hands since manufacture, birth, conception, item. That goes for clocks (seen some still in the crate being manufactured in the 1870's). Cars / vehicles ( I owned a '46 Indian Chief motorcycle with 80 miles on the odometer. Guy got drafted, went to Korea, married a Korean gal that hated motorcycles, bike stayed in a crate for 30 years until I bought it and put it back together). The radio gear is interesting. Many of the folks that 'collect' it, just couldn't afford it when they were kids in the 50's and 60's. I think the same goes for drums. In all things, you have the 'serious' collector. They are the folks that grab the drums from the early days. Most everyone I've read here seem to fall in another bracket, mostly players, that either like the old sound, old kits, and might be older themselves. This includes some 'couldn't get it when they were kids' option also.

I don't think the 'value' figure will ever diminish for collector quality anything. Simply because it's beaten the odds. It's lasted as long as it's lasted without somebody, with good intentions, drilling that hole, recovering an un-matching drum, removing all the bottom rims, front hoops, whatever.

OK, I've made this way too long, but, eh...

I subscribe to the old car theory. I've wrote about this before. If I have an old drum that's for the most part ragged out, I'm going to restore to the best of my ability back to its original condition.

If I have a drum that's weathering the storm pretty good, I'm going to clean it up, polish everything, replace missing parts and let it be.

There are instances where a finish has worn to a cool factor....I usually find this to be duco paint jobs. A torn wrap just looks like bad, a rusted, heavily pitted, torn wrap drum looks like crap.

Mike

Bad wrap is bad wrap. Not much you can do to a wrap that's torn, worn, and flat out expended. If it's got even an inkling of hope, I keep it solid. But, if it's faded out and separated from the drum itself, it comes off. I've had several Ludwig drums recently that the wrap literally came off in my hands. Ask Jaye about how clean that wrap was. There was little to no sign of glue ever being on it. I didn't have to pull it. That is horrible for shell reso. It kills it. You could make a case that one could reapply glue and attach the entire wrap back on the drum. But, that's the same process as a rewrap. Where do you draw the line? This kind of stuff is best left up to those that want the original drums...or original stock cars. Some put the car/drum back to factory...some put the drum/car back to factory with an improved and more appealing look. Back in the day...and even today...you improve your ride and personalize it. You make it an expression of who you are. Look at motorcycles. HD and other manufacturers make a freekin' fortune out of the snap-on chrome market. It isn't factory stock, but still acceptable. There are two camps: those that want factory and those that want factory personalized. Both exist even today. In twenty, thirty, forty years and beyond, people will look at drums and motorcycles of today as vintage. Yet, these are very personalized and definitely not kept factory original. I like both. I have kits that needed some help to look good and some kits that are perfect as is. I don't have an issue with either. It comes down to what's needed.

Not much to add here, but in regards to old military drums, torn heads, broken parts, beat up hoops are a dream come true! That is how they tell the life of the drum.

Once you do anything to it, the value drops drastically.

So a collector of these types of drums likes them to be used and show the marks.

David

I've taken the entire weekend off from my kitchen remodeling project (that doesn't end)! Happy day off!

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Why is a professionally done re-wrap adversely affecting neither the original components of a vintage drum nor its original sound still frowned upon by the vintage drum community as a whole?

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Because the original methods and materials are no longer available. Anyone can re-wrap or "improve" things using the modern materials and methods. No one can re-wrap a vintage 60's Ludwig shell using the original method.

It may seem trivial, but the same thing goes for many vintage cars, too. I have seen car shows where things like the original nuts and bolts are scrutinized! Some of those cats are more particular than any drum collector I've ever known!

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Why isn't the new wrap considered "improved eye candy” as is the case with the classic cars? Doesn't "substance over style" come into play here?

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Yes, sometimes it does. Currently, there is a "1964" Jazzette in purple sparkle for auction on EBay. It's really a nice kit. The guy is asking $2750 for it. As far as "function" goes, it would sound just like an original Jazzette (which wasn't even offered until 1966-67!). And the purple sparkle wrap is really pretty (and never offered for vintage era drums!). The interiors were re-painted and everything was functionally immaculate. The chrome is nice and shiny. It's really a gorgeous little kit. But, to many collectors, it's simply "wrong". It's not "legit". The ideal goes beyond style or function.

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Wouldn't you simply be adding a personal touch to your kit in which creativity would be limited only by the imagination of the owner himself?

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Yep. And as long as the original owner remains the owner, he should be happy.

Fast-forward in time and now a future collector sees that modified kit personalized by someone else. Will they appreciate the imagination of that previous owner?

In the meantime, an original set that remains original -has been well-maintained, etc., will grow rarer and rarer due to the very fact that there are so many imaginative personally-touched drum sets by comparison.

Greetings All.

As a passive participant in the Barrett-Jackson auto world

and still drooling over the 2009 Hoshino catalog, I'm going

'round the bend on the purist point of view.

Just before The Chief passed, I'd read that he was truly

perplexed by the vintage phenomenon. To paraphase, he

stated that he simply could not understand why folks would

prefer the older product over new offerings that he felt were

far superior.

Not intending to open a can of squirm here, just an attempt

to strike a balance.

Took a spin in a friend's 2008 Corvette Convertable a while

back. Big grins no doubt.

But going for a malt and a red hot in his restored Triumph

Spitfire afterward was true bliss...

Falling Do

Well, my grandmother was about in his age range and she felt the same way about things in general. I can't tell you how happy she was when she got the new, leather-"like" recliner. It replaced that old, worn out oak Morris chair. And when shag carpet came into style (for a few seconds), she flipped over it. She thought it was the greatest thing. There go the hardwood floors! Her living room was painted bright swimming pool blue, with blue/green shag carpeting, a Lowry organ by the door and a picture of Jesus on the wall. People who went through the Great Depression have a different way of looking at things.Burger Kin

I am a car fanatic, mainly GM full size. I've had maybe 30 something Cadillacs, Chevy's, and the like, done all my own repairs for 30 years. Right now I have two '92 Caprices and am into those cars.

One big difference in cars compared to drums is that when cars need repainted, if you don't do it they will rust.

If you have a 1940's car in great original shape it is worth more than one that has been repainted. If you have a historic Bugatti you'd never repaint it. In the last few decades there has been a movement to not repaint some really old cars. I don't like it when I buy a car that has been repainted.

I personally don't care about the drum rewrap thing - I don't like the sound of pearl anyway and would rather finish the drums in my homemade organic varnish. With drums and cars, I am into making them better than they were when they left the factory, and don't care about keeping them original.

One thing I find odd is how some (seems like most) people are so picky about keeping their 1940 Radio Kings original and then throw Remo Ambassadors on them.