Nothing at all wrong with your plan. The drum may even sound -better- without the wrap. The only time you have to be careful is when you're wrapping a painted drum. Adding a layer of wrap to a factory painted shell could give heads a tight fit.

John

Brian,Yes in the pass i have used this way on M.I.J. shells from the 60's-70's 6 to 9 ply luan shells. what i used was the same kind of wood plastic filler to make the shell nice and flat,then i painted the shells with a gray paint sanded the shell agian then did a black gloss paint on them...I have never used a clear stain but if the shell is nice why not your way sound's good to me....Mikey

Thanks, Mikey and John! Your expertise is far greater than mine. I really appreciate your input!

Brian

I have used wood filler but I am having second thoughts about it as a long term solution. I'm certainly not familiar with all the brands out there but I would think that the formula might be somewhat similar through the range. In playing a bit with it after the fact, it seems it might not stand up to vibration, perhaps cracking and losing purchase after a while? An alternate patching material, I have used, is a thick mixture of sawdust from my beltsander bag and white glue and although it shrinks a lot upon drying, I take the precaution of mounding it up upon application and or mixing an extra thick consistency , with a higher sawdust to glue proportion.

I have used it on bearing edge repairs and it works like a charm on those, pretty much deleting the cutting option , even for terrible edges.

In Luthier work, the glue used is known as a hide glue. For violins , it is considered that only hide glue should be used because it most closely approximates the resonance of the wood body of the instrument. There may be a lot of obsessive tradition at work here( certainly the common maple back and ribs would have a different resonance than the spruce top) but I am considering getting so obsessive as to mix sawdust ( of the shell type) with hide glue in the future, for such repairs, whether they are under the wrap or not.

Hi, calfskin,

Thank you for the very informative email. I have tried the sawdust method in the past and was pleased with the results. I have also used Minwax Woodfiller with Hardener and was also pleased. Hmmm...now I'm wondering. I had never heard of hide glue before. It must be quite amazing.

Thanks again and may I wish you a very Happy New Year!

Brian