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Restoring a unidentified 60 s drumkit.

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I was recently given a 60s drumkit of unknown origin. Acordin to the guy who gave me the drums, he got them for free when he bougt a second hand kickdrum pedal. I have'nt been able to properly identify what brand they are because someone has painted the whole kit black with a brush or roller and removed all the badges and the toms bottom hops. It basically looks horrible. Its even whorse, as the paint used has reacted with the wraping and made it bucle and bend. From scratching of some of the paint i have been able to see that the original finish is in red sparkle, and that in combination with the tom mounts i'd say is an early Apollo drumkit. The crome, the wood and hardware on the other hand is in pretty good condition and there is little or no rust.

My question is... Would it be whort it to by new wrapining and restore the kit, or shall i donate the thing to some punkband or something

Posted on 14 years ago
#1
Posts: 1459 Threads: 87
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Unless you get the wrap VERY cheap, or want the experience of doing the rewrap, I vote of Donate. Sounds like more trouble than worth to me.

Posted on 14 years ago
#2
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From amosguy

Unless you get the wrap VERY cheap, or want the experience of doing the rewrap, I vote of Donate. Sounds like more trouble than worth to me.

Ok. Thanks for answering my question. Since im Danish and live in Sweden, i would probably have to pay a large shipping fee for the wraps anyway, so it would be even more expensive. From what i know there is no way to buy wraping i scandinavia anyway. But i found red sparkle wraps on ebay so then again, maybe ill do it just for the experience.

Posted on 14 years ago
#3
Posts: 657 Threads: 40
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Whoa! Hold on a second! Since the set has been painted over the wrap, I can understand not wanting to rewrap/restore the kit. However, you can remove the paint from the shells without harming the wrap. I have successfully removed paint from a sparkle wrapped shell by wet sanding with a scrubbing pad. It took time, but it was worth it. Also, I have an Apollo set myself (played it a few hours ago at band practice, actually) and the wrap has never been messed with, but it has bubbling and warping. I think that this can just happen to a 40 year old set.

I have heard that vintage drums can be very expensive in Europe, so I would recommend putting ONE of the drums together with some good heads to hear how it sounds. I'd recommend trying the rack tom. If it sounds good, then maybe the set would be worth fixing up to be a player, especially since you got it for free.

Posted on 14 years ago
#4
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http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=9346

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=9435

I agree with cn679, or you could do what I did. I took some unknowns and if you follow the above example, you will have some very nice looking and sounding drums. It may not be the paint that has caused the "bubbling and warping". Post some photos and let's have a look. I have a Majestic set from the 60s and it has some minor wrap issues, but it is a great set, so I am leaving it alone. The issues are at the lugs, and it is due to age, not paint or something else causing the wrap to "bubble". Those older kits had this issue, especially around your lugs, where all the tension over the years pulled on the wrap and bunched it up. This kit may be worth saving. If you cannot get the paint off, carefully remove the wrap and do what I did, you will love the look. The pictures I took do no justice to what they really look like. The look is high end glitter and killer!

"Ignorance may be overcome through education. Stupidity, however, is a lifelong endeavor." So, educate me, I don't likes bein' ignant...
"I enjoy restoring 60s Japanese "stencil" drums...I can actually afford them..."I rescue the worst of the old valueless drums for disadvantaged Children and gladly accept donations of parts, pieces and orphans, No cockroaches, please...
http://www.youtube.com/user/karstenboy
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coffee...16613138379603
Posted on 14 years ago
#5
Posts: 1432 Threads: 110
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Please, DO the restoring.

Below you'll see the result with my old STAR bass drum.

Left: status when I received it (the red rack tom had to go, it

was a Pearl ...). Sprayed all over - and inside - in red colour and in a savage way.

Right: I took the paint off with an eccentric grinder (wet done) carefully.

It lasts some time, but the fun doing it and the result are worth the trouble

(with time and dust). The rack tom is another one than the red Pearl before.

I didn't take off all the red paint inside of the shell, as you can see.

Ralf

1 attachments
Vintage STAR (= Pre-Tama) website: www.star-drums.de
Posted on 14 years ago
#6
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Yeah, i have had some time to think and im definetly gonna restore the kit. I will post some picts when i have some taken. The thing is, maybe i can restore the rack toms and the bassdrum, but the snare and flortoms have to be rewraped since the wraps broken in several places. BTW. Japanese vintage kits are very easy to come by in sweden. i have restored two Star kits in the past and i own a 1975 Pearl Jazzrock pro. Bought it in a music store for about 250 Euro. Ludwigs and Rodgers are a completly different thing. they are EXPENSIVE!!!

If you want to se my pearl kit, go to my bands myspace www.myspace.com/osynckalmar

The songs are recorded with that kit, but its a portastudio recording so don't judge anything by the sound quality.

Posted on 14 years ago
#7
Posts: 2628 Threads: 40
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[COLOR="DarkRed"]Hi.

Please post pics of the kit NOW, before you restore....we are curious to see how "bad" it is. Sounds like if the wrap is buckled, the wrap is toast...but it may still be worth the labor.

I mean, seriously...the kit was FREE...unless it's really a goner....it may well be worth some effort.

...also, there is a place in the UK which sells drum wrap...I am sure that'd be cheaper than shipping from US....[/COLOR]

www.2ndending.com
Posted on 14 years ago
#8
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I will do that. Thanks for the tip. Can you give me a link?

Posted on 14 years ago
#9
Posts: 1432 Threads: 110
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I know one good source here in Germany:

http://www.stdrums.de

For spare parts, too!

Absolutely trustworthy and uncomplicated in carrying out.

Ralf

Vintage STAR (= Pre-Tama) website: www.star-drums.de
Posted on 14 years ago
#10
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