I have a mid 70's slinger kit in white marine pearl. The kit is pretty much flawless. But the bass drum came with an original tom mount and a few small holes someone drilled for an after market tom mount. Which isnt really a big deal, except I hate things on my bass drum. Tom mounts, the holes that are exposed after you take off the tom mounts, I hate it. I would put the tom mount back on and deal with it, but there are a few small holes still exposed after I put it back on due to the fact that someone drilled for a different tom mount. So i'd really like to turn it into a virgin bass, except the wrap on it is sooo nice and aged I hate to take it off. Plus, if I did take it off, fill the holes, and re-wrap it, what wrap could I get to match the closest? OR is there anything else I could do that wouldn't involve stripping the wrap off thebass drum?
Restoring bass drum question!
I've seen either on here or somewhere else on the Internet that there is a way you can patch the extra holes in the shell with dowels and then take out wrap patches from wrap material underneath lugs or leg mounts. Then use the wrap patches to patch the area where the hole was. Would be useful if someone on here could elaborate on this technique.
I used this technique to patch 20 holes in my slingy bass drum. I've got pictures of the process posted in the restoration section. I've provided two of the links to my posts below. (If you search around a bit you'll find lots of good info on this from others too) .
Here's what you'll need: a mitre kit, some dowels of varying sizes, some wood glue, a round edge file, some wrap, and, some DAP contact cement to attach the wrap to the dowel. I purchased some vintage wmp from a forum member and used that for patches.
Here is what you need to do: take a dowel that is a slightly larger diameter than the hole you want to fill. Use your round file to widen the hole until it is just wide enough to accept the dowel (you want a tight fit). Insert the dowel into the hole. The dowel will be to long to fit 3 or 6 ply shells perfectly, so mark off the point on the dowel where it sticks out of the shell so that you can cut off this extra length with your mitre kit. Remove the dowel from the shell and cut off the extra length. Next, you will want to cut out a piece of wmp wrap to fit the dowel. I would place the dowel on the wmp and then trace around the dowel with a pencil. Then, use an exacto knife to cut the small circle of wmp out. Glue the patch of wmp to your dowel. After it dries, coat the hole in the shell and the sides of the dowel with your wood glue. Insert the dowel into the hole and tap it into place with a soft mallet or other tool (be careful not to damage the dowel or wmp while doing this). Repeat until you are done. This method worked great for me and I am very happy with the results.
If you have any questions just pm me and I would be happy to give you some more detailed info. Good luck!
Here are a couple of the updates and info I gave when patching holes:
http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=12255&highlight=James
http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=12904&highlight=James
Thanks a lot for the info. I was actually thinking about doing exactly that because I filled one large hole and four small ones on a ludwig kit I refinished with dowles. Except I had it stripped down when I did it, so this may be a little trickier. I may pm you eventually to ask some questions James. Thanks again!
Any time...happy to help :)
James
- Share
- Report