So I have been slowly working on these old Pearl's...and I decided to get a hold of Bernie Stone to re-work the edges on my rack tom. They are pretty shot! I will eventually have him work over all the edges. In the process of working on the hardware cleanup I noticed the floor tom seems less than structurally stable. It's soft.
When I removed the hoops and heads it felt very soft, like I could bend it around however I wanted to. Of course I did not...but after removing all the hardware, I laid it down on it's side to work on the hardware on the bench, it squished out of round slightly under it's own weight (nothing on the shell). I stood it upright on a piece of pad to protect what is left of the edge and finished my job. None of my other drums did this, vintage or not...so I figure it's not a good thing.
I suppose my question is...is it salvagable? I would really hate to start searching for a matching floor tom if I can work with this one. It does not feel like any of the plys are peeling away from one another. When I put the heads on with the hoops it's perfectly fine, structurally sound, feels strong, and sounds huge and boomy like I like my floor toms to sound. I love it's looks and sound...I would hate to loose it already!