[QUOTE=Irod;149601]Well, i did some measurements.

It seems that the drums are, first of all, non-standard size, and secondly, a little out of round. I`m not surprised, really...

So... the largest diameter i could find on the floor tom is 36,6 cm, and the smallest is 36,2 cm; the height is 43,8 cm. Speaking in inches, these would be 14,40 in , 14,25 in and height 17,24 in. Pretty weird...

For the bass drum, the sizes are 48,2 cm (18,97 in ) smallest diameter, 48,4 biggest diameter (19,05 in) x 40 (15,74 in).

I was expecting odd dimensions, though, as I wasn`t expecting them to be anywhere close to the standards. I thing that roughly some 19" heads would fit on the bassdrum... if i could find something like that. In these consequences, restoring the hoops is a must, since brand-new hoops won`t fit.

I am worrying about out-of-round-ness, are these values tolerable? If not, is there anything i could do?

just a note on the sizes as well. even though the nominal shell size of a pre '64 Trixon 14' snare or floor tom is 363mm---the head i.d. is actually 368mm(at least that is what the new ones I have are--used ones are a bit variable), so they will work ,probably. with respect to the bass drum; there is more latitude with these because of the size. many bass drums have 5-6mm(1/4") gap between the shell and the i.d. of the head, so a 484mm to 500mm difference between the shell and head is a possible stretch----as long as the head's hoop will fit inside the skirt of the drums hoop. your drum has contoured hoops, does it not?

Hello calfskin,

I shall measure the hoop inner diameter as soon as possible. I`m not sure how a contoured hoop is, though...

I don`t personally know anyone in my town using calfskin heads, except those from ethnic instruments like bodhrans , djembes or other such drums. I haven`t seen calfskin heads in music shops, either. There is an old man , a drummer and percutionist wich might help me with this issue. He should know how these things work, as he`s been playing for more than 50 years.

I remember I have a friend that plays several whistles and such blowing instruments. There was a craft fair this summer,I was walking around and saw him busking with a guy selling strange musical instruments and leatherwork. They invited me to join, so I grabbed a darbuka and played with them (Andrei, my friend, his brother and Ferro, the artisan) for the next 3 or 4 hours. It was extremely fun and rewarding but I could barely use my hands afterwards. I`m pretty sure Ferro could help me with some calfskin, but i am unsure he has such large pieces of leather that I need for the bassdrum.I think the wood hoops of the actual heads are still usable, so I could make my own heads.That is, only if I find calfskin...

Your fleshhoops are useable for sure. The 19" bass drum torn heads might be torn in such a way as to cut enough out of one or both to do 1 or both heads for the tom. You can probably get by with around 400 mm diameter for those . The skin may well ,still be good. Anybody doing Darbukas or other handdrums might have some calf around----or goat, it works o.k., especially for the bass drum. I use goat on the res head all the time. Here, in Canada there is a lot of inexpensive calf and goat imported from India for handdrums. I can send you some cut rounds , if you like. They are from cows that were fed on my farm-----cost would be low and they are light so shipping would not be too bad.-----but I am sure that those materials are available in Romania. Talk to that older guy; I'm sure he knows.

[QUOTE=Irod;150372]Hello calfskin,

I shall measure the hoop inner diameter as soon as possible. I`m not sure how a contoured hoop is, though

The hoop has 3 bends in it and 4 surfaces. The lowest surface which projects over the aluminum or wood hoop attached to the head is what I call the skirt.Measure the inside diameter of that and the inside diameter of the parallel surface above it. That will help me fit heads.

Since material was hard to get after the war,it looks like the wires on that snare are from a electric heater. The round coils look dead on like a heater elements. I have a early Tromsa set and they were very smart with their parts using what they could get.The lugs are so light weight you can only use 1 ply plastic heads otherwise you split the lugs.This kit has much heavier lugs.

Good luck with this kit.Vati

Thanks for the answers.

I`ve got this crazy idea : can I make my own heads and, instead of calfskin, use something simmilar to Mylar used in those geniune plastic heads? Basically it would be the same, but i`m not sure if they will stay tucked...

That "snare drums" aren`t snare drums. They`re some kind of toy drums. They are exactly 10" , have 2 heads that cannot be tensioned and the snare is on the inside. Also, the snare has no strainer and is held in place by some wires that go through the shell.So they`re kind of useless...

The masonite will sound pretty much like Remo acousticon which is the same thing; wood fiber and glue/resin. Not a lot of resonant quality. I had a shed built out of masonite. If I put a badge on it could I call it and 8' x 10' x 8' floor tom? :-) Seriously , the masonite will very likely fall apart or separate once you start applying liquids or heat to it. also you can't cut edges on masonite. Found that out the hard way trying to recut a remo marching drum that had collapsed from tension.

[QUOTE=Irod;150635]Thanks for the answers.

I`ve got this crazy idea : can I make my own heads and, instead of calfskin, use something simmilar to Mylar used in those geniune plastic heads? Basically it would be the same, but i`m not sure if they will stay tucked...

The only plastics that have stood the test of time , are Mylar and Kevlar. Other plastics are either too expensive or unobtainable,or too soft and stretch or dent easily.Mylar and Kevlar have the right proportion of availability and durability. I suspect, the heads supplied with 1960's Japanese drums were something other than mylar because they dented in an instant and sounded very soft and light. The other problem is that commercially, plastic heads are either crimped into the hoop or epoxied. It would be very difficult to shrink the plastic onto the hoop, such as calfskin is done. Tucking calfskin ,is feasible because the skin is soaked first and then it shrinks onto the wooden hoop and becomes almost one with it.This can be enhanced by the use of crazy glue, which was originally developed to stick skin together after surgery, so it works really good for adhering wet skin to wood as well. Not the same with plastic and wood.

Those coil spring snare wires were common on some European drums after the war. Unlike electric heater elements, which are soft and can be stretched easily , the coil snare wires were tempered and compacted ,when new. Cheaper drums had coils with fitted ends. On more expensive drums the coils were fitted individually into both ends of a parallel drop snare mechanism, which may also have had facility to tune them individually. The coils came in different lengths, depending on the diameter of the drum and were engineered to stretch to a predictable expansion when fitted. They could be tensioned further by pulling them harder or less hard against the head. At least ,this is the way the early 50's Trowa system worked----and it worked well.

I asked the plastic vs calfskin thing because calfskin or even goat skin is pretty hard to get and doesn`t come in cheap either. I talked to the old guy, he offered to sell me some kind of plastic I could use.It`s gonna be enough for 2 bass heads and a floor tom head,it`s kind of cheap ( somewhere around 10 E ) but i`m not sure how i`m gonna fit that on the flesh hoops. I`m not really sure what to do... shall I buy the plastic?It seems to me it`s the only option. Also, i`m a bit scared about the sensibleness of calf heads...

@ George Lawrence : The shells are made from masonite but the bearing edges are reinforced with some sort of plywood. They are pretty even and don`t really need to be redone,in my opinion.

So far i have cleaned most of the lugs from the floor tom and i am working on cleaning the bolts. Some of them are in pretty good shape, but some are not. I don`t want to use any heavy chemical rust cleaner as i am affraid it will damage the treads. I`m using coke and steel wool, it went good on some of them but not that good on the heavily-rusted ones. Any ideas what else I could use?