Good to hear the up-date Mr. Ludwig-Dude. I remember your help when I restored my Dixieland snare. I was looking at mine just last week....what a beautiful drum! If you remember I finished mine with Tung Oil. I'm very happy with the outcome. My drum had a Red Sparkle wrap originally....it was half gone when I got the drum. I was going to wrap it in Gold Sparkle - I even ordered the wrap - but when I cleaned it the wood was so nice I did not have the heart to wrap it.

I remember the Silver SF on your drum. It was nice but I think you're drum with look even better with the Black Lacquer. Is Rustoleum a better product than the Nitro Cellulose Lacquer that Gretsch uses? I used the NS lacquer (in rattle cans) for my BD hoops on the 58 kit. It worked fine but in hindsight I should have put a coat or two of clear poly gloss lacquer - it makes a harder finish. Maybe Gretsch uses some kind of special curing process I don't know. But I do know that a Polyester Lacquer is much more difficult to remove that the NC lacquer if you want to repair it.

I'm looking forward to the outcome of your drum. AND if it was me....I would not sell that little gem. They are nice drums. I see them for sale now and then and most of the time they're missing the parts that are hard to find = a throw-off in mint condition OR the more difficult to find Vintage 6 hole hoops. So, if you have a drum with badge, throw & hoops I'd say you have a nice piece of Amercian Drum History there LD.......just my thoughts on it.

An aside: I sold 5 of my 'very precious' snare drums last month for a down-payment on a USA Custom shellpack (should be here next month). But I did not sell my Gretsch snares.

I will add: In "this economy" people do not want to pay you what your drum is worth - at least what you think it's worth. I've been seeing it more and more lately; people just do not want to spend good money on a really nice old drum. You put a lot of time & expense into restoring your Dixieland drum and in most cases the market - right now anyway - will not give you a fare return on your investment - there are exception = someone wants the drum at any price for instance. Unless you absolutely need the money I would not part with your drum without getting your investment, time&parts, back - and then some.

Please don't take my the advice the wrong way - or even at all if you chose. I'm only giving it as a friend & Forum member/drummer and through some experience I've gained over the past three years. So I'm no expert here. Just conveing my feeling on the matter.

I'm really looking forward to seeing your Black Lacquer Jem. Sorry for the long reply - I get carried away with all this Vintage Drum stuff - especially my passion = Gretsch drums.

Hi Gary,

The Rustoleum Lacquer, from what I gather from the can, is in fact nitro-cellulous lacquer. As a matter of fact, I'm on the second coat right now :p I figure 4-5 coats of color, then a couple of coats of clear gloss if I don't like the results of just the color. I'm figuring I'll have to do a slight wet-sand and then buff it after the paint has dried in a few days. The silver sealer inside coat got finished a few hours ago. Nice thing about Krylon....it dries very fast so you can handle it as needed. You can hardly tell where the extra holes were now!

As far as selling....I'm on the fence about it now.......once its finished I'l make that decision......black does go with everything though.... ;)

Good stuff !

I will keep that in mind regarding the Rustoleum. I didn't know that.......because when I was looking for Nitro Cellulose I could only find it by ordering it through Industrial Palstics...a local shop. I thought it would be expensive but they only charged me about $9/can which I though was pretty good. I have used white Rustoleum and do like the product. I will have to check out their Black Nito C if they have it here.

And yes...you will have to do something to harden it up once you finish. Sounds like you're on the right track.

I used Silver Aluminum Paint for my "secret Silver Sealer." It did tend to run a bit and is not easy to work with. I will look into the Krylon "secret" paint in the future - thanks for that tip.

I did not know it at the time, because I was totally new at the restoration thing, but I refinsihed my Gretsch 58 kit with silver sealer and it devalued my kit by about 1/2. No one told me at the time NOT to do it. I was a little disappointed when I got my drums appraised (for insurance purposes) last year and they came in at $2200. I'm not selling them but I would have not refinished the interiors had I known. There was nothing wrong with the way they were when I got them - I was only thinink at the time that "boy - these would look even nicer with a fresh coat of silver sealer.Violin

Live-n-learn hu.

I look at it this way.....if they had silver sealer originally and it's a mess, giving it a fresh coat of it is a good thing, so how could it possibly "devalue" them? Besides, value is only ONE man's opinion.

To me, the Gretsch I'm restoring is only worth what I have into it. (which at this point is probably more than market value of a Dixieland model in mint shape.) I look at it this way. I sold it once, and the guy complained about the fact that it was a re-wrap. (in fact it was a wrap, not a re-wrap, as it was not originally wrapped) And I disclosed this in the auction! So now, I'm sure that after its been repainted,etc. I'll get some bozo who will complain about that fact, even though that would be disclosed too!

I look at it this way, if I'm fixing problems with the drum and RESTORING it to "like original" condition, like in car restorations, how can I possibly be de-valuing the drum? I'd be INCREASING the value as it has been brought BACK to original specs........seems the rest of our vintage friends don't see it that way. Such a shame, as I like what you did with yours....the wrap was shot and the wood underneath was good and didn't have any extra holes, so you finished it in a "natural" wood finish, something that I don't believe the factory did at the time. At the same time you made an unusable drum usable again, yet some here might say you "ruined" or devalued it. Again, how so if you made it a usable drum again?

Anyway, sorry about the rant, but I had to vent....maybe the lacquer fumes are getting to me! :p

BTW Gary, the Krylon is a bit more silvery than I'd like, but maybe after it flashes off it will darken up a bit. I used Krylon matte aluminum. It's pretty close though, closer than the "galvanized fence paint" that the site recommends, I think......

Hard to put a value on "sweat equity" sometimes.

It makes me very reluctant to let go of a drum I have a lot of time invested in, though.

Not just time into this one though Kevin.....finding the "correct" parts took some time & $$ too! :D

I remember the struggle to find the 4-point strainer......

What a hassle that was !

My thought totally.

I mean....that's why we're on this earth....right....to bring these beautiful drums back to life and enjoy them. I'm kind of kidding of course but there is some truth to it with all of us here that do it. I for one am getting a lot of pleasure in my hobby........there is a lot of satisfaction in being able to sit down and play some rudiments or play along with a song on a drum that you've restored. Ya....I find it hard to "let go of" one of these drums.