Could you please post some pics of the bare shells before you did anything to them. I am very curious to see the wood color and grain when you started. I would consider doing a Sunburst someday with some shells that are more, um, affordable.

Of course another option for such a project is to use any of the modern shells found on entry level kits. Some of the wood on those is very good wood - very well made shells. The cheap nature of those come into play with the hardware, which could always quite easily be changed out.

Thanks,

John

Alas, there are no before pix.

I didn't think to.

They were quite reddish and not at all light like maple. Grain in these shells is VERY tight. Never seen luan shells like this. not stringy or coarse.

As for affordable, I paid $80 for the 5 piece shell pack including hardware.

I added the 14" ft.

KK

Here's a bit of an update and some more pix.

These are pix of the BD. 6 lug converted to 8 lug.

Here's a shot of the bass drum(albeit a crappy shot of the edge. Very nice and sharp after 30+years.) Not much rework required. Some were dead level on the edge table.

[IMG]http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn241/JimmiHolliwood/edge.jpg[/IMG]

here's a shot of the only seam in the interior for all you guys who may be able to identify these shells. The interior has been stained and the seam filled. It had about 1/8" gap.

[IMG]http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn241/JimmiHolliwood/interior.jpg[/IMG]

here's a couple shot's of the seams on the outside of the shell.

[IMG]http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn241/JimmiHolliwood/xterior1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn241/JimmiHolliwood/xterior2.jpg[/IMG]

I put a new pinstripe batter and evans resonant on the 13" tom, set my rechargeable drill to the lowest setting and torqued all the lugs and it tuned perfectly.

I'm impressed and I've owned ALOT of drums.

Low grade soft luann..yeah yeah...yadda, yadda.

Better Luann than some of the press board shells I've seen. LMMFAO!!!!

here's how I see it.

It's 90% player.

I don't care if the shell is made of stewed **** or the badge says "hand made by Buddy Rich"

If it's a good drum, it's a good drum.

Even the ****tiest drum factory gets it right once in a while.

These sound far better than a current set of RB's for 1/5th the price.

Hell, the tom sounded GREAT without any damping. It tuned to a perfect B.

(we checked the shell with a vibration tuner)

Any way. I'm 95% convinced these are Maxwin 505's when they had badges that said "Maxiwin by Pearl" with the grommet thru the badge.

Will post pix of the finished kit soon.