anyone ... ?

Good question also for the bare shelled ones too.

good question, I guess no, but you can be conservative and consider any form of treatment/coating. these old shells weren't the ducks guts 40 years ago but with time probably have come to sound richer and warmer. but to contradict what i just said , i have an 80's trak snare i want to treat to a hayman spec with a form of what hayman said was vibrasonic, for me i need shells that project and have volume. so coating may give you volume, but you may loose tone, my music needs volume with some decent tone.

If the insides are already painted, oil will not make much sense as it the paint will stop the oil from penetrating.

On a bare luan shell, one or two thin layers of a hardening oil such as linseed oil, danish oil or whatever will harden the wood just a little, giving the drum a little more attack and volume.

Painting them will do the same - even more. As ALOT says, this is what Hayman did to make their drums louder - but that also took out the woody softness of them. Painting shells in the extreme, like on for instance 80s Pearl MLXs, makes for a drum that almost sounds like an acrylic shell.

For yours - I wouldn´t alter them in that direction. Leave them as they are, unless the paint is severely cracked, in which case you could sand them down a little, and give them a very thin coat of aerosol spray - just to bring them back to where they were.

Just my viewpoint....

Jon

+ 1

That's what I would have suggested, too.

Ralf

There is a lot of good info here guys.

+1 on Jon's reply.

If you would like, do a search on this site and the DFO for this topic. We ran lots of tests on experiments utilizing various products and methods. Several of us ran A/B tests over the years and went so far as to post videos and such. Mind you, the videos are about five or six years old, but the results still hold up today. I'm still an OSMO Polyx Hardwax Oil fan. There are numerous products out there. Find what works best for you.

Good topic.

On bare Luann interiors, I've found that clear dewaxed shellac does wonders without changing the look.

The shellac penetrates and binds the porous fibers well. Keeps the shells from cracking, de-laminating. Makes them less splintery.

It does tend to "brighten" the tone slightly but 2 coats, sanding the gloss off the final coat keeps this change to a minimum.

Do these vids have side by side comparisons? Do they use drums with all other variables identical? I have never seen such vids - can you provide a link?

Thanks,

a known MIJ fanatic,

John