I would put my vote in for a build off of the older kick drum. Get your chops up, and start a fun search. You can find what you need on e-bay for a price almost any day. I like to do local searches- G-sales, Thrift stores, Craigslist, and trade ins at your local mom and pop music stores. I think the reward is a little greater if you wait for the drums to come to you. WMP is out there, you will find more. Have fun with what you have for now.

Use this video to set up your snare drum:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxm3QunDjUs[/ame]

Follow Bob step by step. If the drum is still buzzing after the set-up, you'll need to re-tune the toms. Snare buzz is a sympathetic vibration phenomenon. If you move the toms tuning into a different range (up or down,) it should fix/help the snare buzz situation.

Also - Puresound snare wires make a set of split-snares that are intended to kill sympathetic snare buzz, but it's an expensive solution.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=puresound+equalizer&tag=googhydr-20&index=mi&hvadid=6507515376&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1545494265417782444&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&ref=pd_sl_1htbbek60b_e

Hope this helps...

John

Thanks John. I'd seen a few of his videos before. I think I have my snare where I like it, but I'll give the video a look-see. I picked up a set of pure sound snares, but not the split version - the ones on it currently (I believe are original) are pretty beat up, bent, etc - so I'll be putting those one along with a new P86 throw off to replace the P85.

~m

Here's an Idea, Nowadays Natural Maple veneer wrap is very thin and affordable, not much more than standard wrap and if cosmetics are important and it motivates you to play them more, then I would get them all wrapped in Maple veneer. They would then all match, look fantastic and it would be relatively inexpensive...Whatever it takes to get you to stick with it would be worth it, and having a killer looking set of drums is one heck of a motivator. I like your idea of going with natural maple, it's classy, timeless, and would fit with most any band you decide to play with.

That's a thought, too. Although I do like the WMP finish...I contacted the guy who I bought the bass drum from...looks like he still has the matching 13" - we'll see if perhaps he'll make me a deal on it ;o)

~m

Go for it, this 13" tom will sound much better than one you have.

Well, I don't know if it will sound better, but it would definitely be cool to have the matched set ;o)

That looks like a maple shell stained to look mahogany but the grain is wrong for mahogany.

I may have to post another shot of it - I agree it looks stained, but there is one part of it where the grain doesn't look quite like maple, either

~m