Lets say you have a favorite coated drum head you want to clean up a bit. Perhaps you are flipping a kit and need that extra little detail without new heads all around. Maybe even as a collector you want some nicer looking coated batter or reso heads.
Well I had read a few threads on other forums about people painting (yes I said painting) drum heads. I had some time and a few drum heads to try so I figured why not. Results were great and only from the back of the head can you see it was ever used. Logo is gone but for me this is no biggie.
Step 1:
Clean your drum heads well. If they are coated and have some coming off a slight sanding might help. In my case I used some acetone to scrub well (warning this will remove logos). It also removed a lot of stick marks.
Step 2:
Get some Rust-Oleum textured in white.
Step 3:
Carefully in light layers begin to spray your drum head. If it is a coated head with some valleys or chips of missing coating you will want to hit those areas first to get them to the same level as the rest of the head. You might want to mask off of the other areas.
Step 4:
Success!! Now unless your heads or totally thrashed and beat to heck you should have the same results as pictured. Tonally these heads sound just about the same as when the coating was new. Obviously if you lay on the paint it will bring the tone down. Depending on your need to do this it might not matter so much.
Tips:
I found that clear heads are obviously a better starting point for this. Coated heads might need more prep work (as mentioned above) but take well to this process. Make sure you work the paint in very light coats (just dust on the first coat) or you will have runs.
