DISCLAIMER
I know there are considerable pros and cons surrounding the decision of whether or not to use vinyl adhesive colored wraps on drum shells. First let me begin by stating I do not recommend nor do I endorse any products mentioned herein, nor do I recommend any one product over another, as this post is written as purely a discussion of the types of wrap and decision to use one type over another. This is my opinion, and as such I am therefore free to make my own personal observations, and draw my own conclusions.
Once again: I DO NOT RECOMMEND USING THESE TYPES OF PRODUCTS ON VINTAGE DRUMS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BENEFIT FROM AN ORIGINAL PLY TYPE OF WRAP. USE OF THESE TYPES OF WRAPS SHOULD BE RESERVED FOR PLAYERS KITS AND NON HIGH VALUE DRUMS. PLAYERS BENEFIT GREATLY FROM THIS AS IT IS ATTRACTIVE AND VERY COST EFFECTIVE, AND AS LONG AS YOU USE REASONABLE CARE WHEN TRANSPORTING, SETTING UP AND PLAYING THE EQUIPMENT OVER WHICH IT IS APPLIED.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANY PRODUCT OVER ANOTHER, NOR DO I RECOMMEND THAT ANY PERSON USE ANY OF THE PRODUCTS OR TECHNIQUES MENTIONED HEREIN. I DO NOT SUGGEST ANYONE TRY THIS ON ANY PERSONAL PROPERTY, AND IF YOU DO, I AM IN NO WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MISTAKES YOU MAKE IN SELECTING, PURCHASING, APPLYING OR FOR ANY OTHER REASON IN CONJUNCTION WITH USE OF ANY INFORMATION OR OPINIONS CONTAINED HEREIN. IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOU READ THIS ARTICLE AND DECIDE YOU WISH TO MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR PERSONAL PROPERTY AND YOU CAUSE ANY DAMAGE OR CAUSE ANY LOSS, WHETHER REAL OR IMAGINED, REMEMBER, YOU MADE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION TO MAKE THOSE CHANGES OR ADJUSTMENTS USING THESE PRODUCTS, AND WERE IN NO WAY COERCED BY ME TO DO SO.
[COLOR="Red"]UPDATED 9.23.2009[/COLOR]
That said, let us begin.I have read a few posts in a few different places regarding the use of the CET Sparkle Brite vinyl adhesive wrap (or whatever it actually is, and for the sake of ease of understanding, we will call it vinyl) and another brand currently available on a popular auction website. I have personally seen 3 separate drum sets rewrapped using the non-CET brand, 2 covered by the same person, both looked very nice. The owner told me had used it several times, and had some problems with the products' longevity under certain conditions. The most obvious is with extreme heat. He had a set that was done in a silver sparkle and it looked really nice, until he left the drums in his car in the Tucson summer heat. He said it bubbled horribly, and was easy enough to remove the covering while still hot, but it left a considerable amount of residue that was difficult to remove. He used silver mostly because of personal taste.My brother used the same stuff to rewrap a set of his own many years ago. It looked great, and held up very well to light touring. I mean very light touring. It will show rash if drums are allowed to rub or ride or in some other way come into contact with each other and in any way vibrate and shake causing friction. It will show knicks and scrapes, cuts and bruises. It is not a solid, hard surface product, it is, essentially, tape. We put it directly over the existing finishply material and experienced no major issues, other than light bubbling which was for the most part not visible, and easily removed using pins or razor blades and forcing the air bubble out. These held up well for the remainder of the 2 years he kept them. The covering we used was done some 20 years ago. Far from the same material available today. One of the people I read about has had very positive effects and results using these wraps.
One of the biggest issues with these thin adhesive wraps is gouging and tearing. As long as reasonable care and patience are used during the installation process, (see step by step example of how another user applied this type of wrap on his drum set) your drums should look just fine. As for the second process, applying a clear, more durable covering over the SB type material, I would go in exactly the opposite direction. http://www.joshroot.com/rewrap.html
[COLOR="Orange"]This link is borrowed from another post on this forum, thanks to Josh Root for placing it here for our mutual use, used by permission from Josh![/COLOR]
During installation, you must certainly follow guidelines such as any antique refinisher would use, such as overlapping, and placing seams directly under a set of lugs in order to minimize the possibility of lifting edges. You may, and probably will, experience some "bunching" around your lugs once you begin to put tension on the heads, my original Blue Sparkle finishply does that, and it has been there for 45 years, so even the original type is not immune to these ripples, or bunched up areas. So this is common and likely, you can use a pin or razor to help relieve some of the bubbles if you just can't live with it. Remember, these are drums that are likely to get heavy use, and all we really care about on these old cans anyway is that they look and sound decent under the stage lights, right? We are not talking about wrapping your Super Classics or Holidays, or the like in this stuff, remember? Is It for those trusty old standards that had the ugly wrap that is starting to come apart at the seams, or that stencil kit of ZimGars you picked up for 25 bucks at a yard sale that had a disgusting pink paint applied over some standard sparkle at some time (you stripped the paint first, didn't you?) because this stuff has a hard time holding onto paintfor very long, unless it was some really trashed original mahogany that was originally stained and lacquered and has seen it's last days of sunlight 14 years ago, and let's face it, you don't really want to sand, and seal, and stain, and...re..too much time.
[COLOR="#ff0000"]Now, let's talk about something that is sure to help protect our new $23.90 worth of SparkleBrite. There is another product out there that may very well make this a great alternative to sending those Majestics you got off CL for $50 off and spending $259.87(# used for illustrative purpose only-not an actual quote) for a new professional wrap job, and 2 1/2 months without your only other kit that is not laying all over the house in plastic margarine tubs. It is a clear polyester film that comes in various thickness' and is fairly inexpensive. It can be installed in the same manner as the SB. Now that we know, go forth and rummage those trash piles and yard sales fearlessly! And now that we know what to use, you may be able to locate it for less than below. Is it going to make them immune? NO! Is it going to help keep the new tape/vinyl covering safe a while longer? Yes, probably, and it almost certainly can"t hurt. For research link to mfrs site: [/COLOR]
To purchase or for pricing info, go here:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/dura-lar-clear-adhesive-backed-film/
http://www.shopatron.com/products/category/Adhesive/527.0.1.1.20226.12355.0.0.0
[COLOR="Red"]I am currently searching other options and sizes for this type of covering.
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[COLOR="#ff0000"]I spoke with Cynthia at Grafix asking for more information. She was a great help, and told me that the better choice for covering over something like SB would be an adhesive backed polyester, like the one shown here. The price is a bit high, but as I poke around a bit more, I will find other options. I went into some detail with her and she was very intrigued, telling me that for the use, and for the cost effectiveness, that this would be a great choice. It is, of course, not going to stop damage, but is pretty tough for what we want to do with it. So, the use of acetone, although it is really cheap, it would not hold up well. She said that acetone is too brittle and would probably break and crack too easily. [/COLOR]
If we start an email campaign to Blick asking for an extended offering, the company that makes the SB has many more available colors, and some are really nice. They have Orange Sparkle, Purple Sparkle and a few more in sparkle. Also, they make a nice Galaxy, and the ugly, IMO, metallic red/blue/green etc. They even have...well, go over to the CET website and have a look-see. They took some of the color swatches down after I made an inquiry as to the availability of Orange Sparkle, wonder why?? They did offer to sell me a roll for around 500-600. I just don't have use for that much SB. Maybe I should order it and go into competition on (auction name deleted) website!
This link goes directly to the mfr's site, and they will sell you an entire roll, if you want to get in the auction website business selling mode and have the pennies to pony up. Seems like it was around $600/roll, and the rolls are like 100yds, maybe more. Contact them, they will get back to you with pricing on rolls.