Nearly a year ago I collected a misfit group of orphan shells; 1960's 12x8 tom, 14x14 floor tom, and a 1970 12x18 bass drum. I was not overly rushed to do anything with this rag tag group because I had an original 1968 Jazzette.
Like a lot of us I tend to get bored with things in my collection and so when someone hit buy it now on my eBay listing I was pleasantly surprised. To be honest my Camco and Rogers bop kits had seen the most playing time as of late.
Here are the details of the project:
1960's floor tom was purchased off eBay for a GREAT price. So folks don't give up hope on good deals on 14x14 floor toms. Unfortunately my plan to keep it with the original wrap was scraped when the drum arrived. Sometime during the 70's someone slapped bumper stickers all over the drum. The years of sun exposure meant large splotches in the finish and a few areas of wrap cracks.
1970 Jazzette bass drum was also purchased off of eBay and set me back the most. I made an offer but in the end agreed to the seller's asking price. Great person to deal with and he even included a 60's Ludwig drum key.
1960's rack tom was purchased off of Facebook from a pilot in south Florida. This was kinda cool as my day job is with fighter jets. Anyway this drum had a clear interior but no extra holes.
I opted to remove all the wrap myself. No matter how careful you are with these drums, it seemed near impossible to get all the wrap off perfectly. I spent a lot of time getting any imperfections from removing the wrap sorted and even more time sanding everything smooth.
The edges I was intent on leaving factory as in my mind this is part of the "mojo". The only challenge in doing this was matching the paint of the floor tom in the bass drum and rack tom. I had a scan taken of the paint color in the floor tom and get very close. To match the sheen was my final challenge. The options from the store did not get close enough so I ended up putting several coats of polyacrylic gloss over the paint. This got the match dead on in terms of sheen and feel.
To make sure I matched what Ludwig would have done from the factory I used some automotive painting fine-line masking tape. This gave me perfectly clean lines right up to the poplar ply of the shell on the bearing edges.
The wrap color I chose was gold sparkle. This was a tough choice as I have seen a couple Jazzette re wraps as of late. For me keeping the bearing edges stock, matching the paint exactly, and using original badges I felt would set my project apart. No extra holes in any drum is another bonus.
This time I chose Precision drums to wrap the drums. They did an outstanding job!
Finally I want to thank Gary Bender and Randy Houk. They both helped supply me with parts I needed to complete my project. My "real" finished project pictures will come once I get my bass drum sticker and new heads.
Enjoy these pictures for now!
Manny
