At first I was thinking it could have been a tambourine holder.
All of the pictures I have seen so far of the chinese tom have had 2 heads, so I thinking that some of them were single headed and would have allowed the tom to hang around the clips in the half-mood piece of metal. But, mine is mounted upside down and would have gone the other way for the drum to rest on it.
I'm going to keep my eyes open for a Chinese tom to complete the kit.
Thanks!
Do you happen to be in the DC area? I saw a kit on craigslist that looked VERY similar to this that the seller was asking $35 dollars!!!! SOmeone beat me to it... Just wondering...
Did you really pay 35? You scored!!!!
It was a good acquisition. I wasn't sure what I was buying as the pictures weren't clear and the seller had no idea what they were, so he wasn't able to describe them to me very well over the phone.
I literally saw them in the dark with headlights shining on them inside an old shed. And, they were pretty dirty. I figured I would buy them regardless. Once I got them home and looked them over I was pretty excited to say the least.
China tom holder,the toms all had two heads tacked on, the bottom head rested on the tangs. One of my china toms still has rub marks from the holder on the both heads,must have hade a lot of use. Remember China toms were a novelty trap in those days used for the oriental and native American tunes popular at the time,they were not played like the tunable toms that developed from them.They were also usually played with soft mallets not as punctuation but for that native jungle beat.
I was told by a old drummer years ago that an ice pick was the choosen tuning tool for china toms,if the heads got too slack,you spit the soft wood shell with the ice pick and the more you pushed the pick in to widen the crack the higher the pitch???.
Dion...
China tom holder,the toms all had two heads tacked on, the bottom head rested on the tangs. One of my china toms still has rub marks from the holder on the both heads,must have hade a lot of use. Remember China toms were a novelty trap in those days used for the oriental and native American tunes popular at the time,they were not played like the tunable toms that developed from them.They were also usually played with soft mallets not as punctuation but for that native jungle beat. I was told by a old drummer years ago that an ice pick was the choosen tuning tool for china toms,if the heads got too slack, you spit the soft wood shell with the ice pick and the more you pushed the pick in to widen the crack the higher the pitch???. Dion...
Dion,
That is some great info. The few pictures I have seen of the chinese toms made me wonder about their versatility.
Ice picks -- wow! I guess drummers have always been a little creative. The shape of an ice pick would have made them a great tool when you think about it.
I love this forum!
Please don't hang me up by my thumbs, even though I deserve it.
I stripped down and cleaned the shell last night and let the hardware soak in "Safest Rust Remover" (SafestRustRemover.com). The hardware came out looking pretty good. The small copper cups that hold the tube lugs from inside the drum came back to life the most vibrant. The lugs look prety good. Not new, but I hope I look as solide and strong when I'm pushing 80 :)
The tension rods are relatively rust free and will get a little more attention. I went over the hardware with a bottle of Degreaser that was included and polished the lugs, tenion rods and washers, copper cups with a light touch using 0000 steel wool. I'm not sure what the tube lugs are made of, but they are heavy. I thought they may have been brass before I started working on them, but they have a chrome steel like appearance now that they have been cleaned. Is there a
The top hoops looks much better, but has some damage from the rust. It is a light colored brass. Plated maybe?
The bad news:
I cleaned the shell last night with some soapy water. I decided that soaking it in Dawn dish liquid for an hour might help to erase some of the dirt buildup. I checked it a couple of times, used a soft cloth to clean it a bit and let it soak a little more. Went over it again with the cloth, dried it. It looked much better and I went to bed. I looked at it this morning, and the paint has puffed up in places above and below the bead, and has popped of in a couple of places exposing the brass shell. I feel like an idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't even think about that possibly happening. I'm guessing there were enough nicks and scratches in the paint to allow the moisture to get behind the paint and cause it flake. The interior is fine, as it didn't affect it at all. This was a hard lesson to learn.
So, what do I do now?
1. Wear a mask (Lead paint I suppose) and gently sand down the exterior and apply a flat lacquer to hopefully prevent more paint from coming off along with any potential lead paint vapor?
2. Remove the rest of the exterior paint and play it as is? I have seen a few old drums of this era on ebay, so I now suspect that they may have also had their exterior paint removed for some reason such as this. But, I am speculating, of course.
3. Remove the exterior paint and apply a similar color paint to match the inside?
4. Head to the nearest tall building and jump?
I know #4 is the obvious choice. Any other suggestions? What would you do?
Here's picture of the snare with the peeling paint as detailed above.
