Hi, I have this club date bass drum with what appears to be two original badges. one badge is 152xxx and the other 159xxx, from the inside everything looks right. I've never seen two badges like on a bass drum before. Anyone shed any light on this?
It's a nice black lacquer club date that obviously needs some attention to the finish, please give an tips on how to clean up the black lacquer, its hazy and dull on toms, flaky on the bass drum.
thank you
Nice find!
I have not seen two badges before. Odd that the serial numbers are so far off from each other.
As far as the lacquer goes...................it depends on how much work you want to do and how original you want the condition to be.
If you want to leave it as original and unaltered as possible (along with its mojo), than I use this three step process on gloss lacquer finishes:
1) Thoroughly clean the shells with Windex and a microfiber towel, than buff with a "normal" terrycloth towel. This gets all the surface dirt, gunk and grime off.
2) Apply furniture polish using a microfiber towel. Buff off with a microfiber towel, then buff again with a terrycloth towel.
3) Apply a high quality car wax, like Turtle Wax Carnuba with the included foam applicator. Then buff off with a microfiber towel, then buff again with a terrycloth towel.
That will get them looking as good as they can. If you want to be more detailed and have them lose some of their originality (and mojo) but would make them look like new again then you could very lightly scuff sand the flaking ares and re-paint with black paint (assuming the factory lacquer finish is opaque and doesn't show the wood grain through it). Then apply several thin coats of satin finish polyurethane on the re-painted areas. Then use 0000 or 000 steel wool to smooth out the polyurethaned area(s) and then finish it off with a couple coats of gloss polyurethane. You may want to re-do the whole shell with the gloss coats (and not just the affected area) to bring back a uniform shine. Same would go with the bass hoops. Also, some new Silver Sparkle inlay would look great on those hoops!
Whatever you decide to do.................Good Luck! And, you know how we love pictures around here!
V
Wow, Thanks for the details, I truly appreciate it. I think I will clean and polish the kit and leave it. I'm kinda purist... I'll post more pics once i get them all cleaned up and new heads. I am in need of another Bass hoop and tension rods for it.
I'd need to see the interiors and many more detailed close up pics.....I have my suspicions what this might be but I will hold off for now.
Heres some more pics of my new find. Correction the badges on the bass drum are 152XXX and 154XXX. The black 1965 stamp is in the floor tom. the mounted tom has a red blurred stamp, couldn't find one in the bass drum. All interiors are white.
I need a front hoop and tension rods, if anyone knows anyone...
thanks for looking!!!
Can you take a picture of the outside of the bass drum shell where the spurs come out? I am still studying this and cooking up a theory of what might be going on.
Hi Grandfunk!
Great looking kit and excellent and excellent detail advice from member V. I know many of us will look forward to future pictures!
-Mark
Heres the outside spur holes. The suspense is killing me...lol. We might have the 2 badge theory figured out before i find a hoop and t rods! lol. Either way, I have had pieces of kits in the past but I'm just glad to have a complete club date kit. The dual badges only add intrigue...I was planning on a re wrap, but Ive never done one and I'd hate to screw it up.
I'll probably just work on cleaning and playing it the way she is.
Keep the comment, thought, advice and ideas coming.
Well...I'm not sure about this theory....but I don't have any other guesses!.....
I think the shell might have accidentally had the holes for the spurs drilled upside down and then only realized after the fact. And I thought that the actual spur location was a little too far forward....and might have ended up interfering with the installation of the front head and hoop as a result. However, I don't think that's the case, now that I can see. And then maybe someone just used the errant holes to double badge the drum. I have never seen this before and I have no other similar examples of reference. This is a real mystery!
I was thinking the same as O-lugs; if they drilled the spurs wrong, they realized it before they mounted the rail & cymbal mount. The spurs have something funny going on--they're close to the re-ring, & have washers inside & out. Not sure they're Ludwigs. Anybody else?............marko
