backbeatkeeper!

Nice to hear from you again! Okay, in response to your excellent question:

Rogers ( CBS owned at the time ) called that particular coating: "Trunk Paint". From what I have been able to reserach over the years the reasons for it were a few:

The standard Gray paint on the insides of the late 50's early 60's Rogers shells was a pretty dense lead based paint, and Rogers felt it did in fact contribute to the "sound quality" of the shells... and it very well may have... BUT! ... After doing a few COMPLETE restorations, I found that most ALL of the Rogers shells from this era were essentially: "Wrap Grade"... meaning:

The shells were/are a patchwork of different plies of maple, glued and formed to the shape of the shell, and intended to be wrapped in the customers choice of color/style wrap. In other words, you wouldn't want or be able to have a natural or stain finish on these as the wood wasn't a natural/finish grade on the outer ply... and of course the same holds true for the inner plies.

CBS era drums, from 1966/67, featured the "trunk paint" that you are asking about. Why the switch from the flat Gray? I'm not totally sure... perhaps it was CHEAPER!... and/or CBS/Rogers wanted to do their own thing. Regardless, the shells were the same... wrap grade... and the "trunk paint" continued until the introduction of the XP8 series shells in 1979 which were "finish grade" on the inner ply, and featured clear varnish.

Is there a difference in sound quality between the two? Again, I'm not totally sure as I only own/play Rogers drums with the flat Gray interiors. My "newest" Rogers kit is a 1966! I do have and play a 1967 WMP Dynasonic... but as we all know, those are finished in clear varnish.

Hope this was of interest/help! Got Rogers?! :-)

Tommyp

TommyP,

Again your plethora of knowledge astounds me. The reason to my question is twofold. Number one, the acoustic properties, secondly, I have a 1950's Pearl (brand) drum set that I picked up and I have done some repair to the bass drum shell and was thinking of coating it. Due to the fact that it is also a grey colored coating and I like the look of the white and grey spackling of the newer shells by Rogers. I have found a product that seems similar and is used quite extensively by people for lining automobile trunks and was thinking of coating the interiors to cover the smoothed out repair and for the acoustice properties. The kit is in wonderful shape, missing a few bass drum tension rods, but in very good shape regardless. 20 inch bass drum, 12 inch mounted tom and 14 x 14 floor tom with matching wrap snare. If you know of any product or the name of the Rogers product, I would surely appreciate any information.

Best Regards,

backbeatkeeper

P.S. The Dynasonic I bought a few months ago has been tuned a little higher and sounds beautiful. Thanks for the tips on the Dyno!!

backbeatkeeper...!

Try this product: http://www.plasti-kote.com/plastikote/auto/template.jsp?searchcode=RES&product=AutoTrunk

This product is just about a dead on match to the Rogers "Trunk Paint". There are a few different color blends too, although the Gray/White looks ideal. There is also a Gray/Black/White which might look real nice on your Pearl's. It would most certainly hide the repairs and even out the appearance of the inside ply, not to mention act as a sealer for the shell. Anyway, have a look!

GREAT on the Dynasonic! And I tension/play mine ABOVE a medium tension as well, just not so tight that the batter head chokes against the "round-over" on the bearing edge... but always crispy and articulate.

Pics of the Pearl's please when you are finished with 'em! It seems like the early Japanese brands are going to be the next collectibles! :-)

Tommyp

Well, thanks to this forum and vintagedrums.com, I have officially become a collector. The Pearl set makes number five, and I'm already looking at a sixth. Thanks a bunch for your help Tommyp and have a wonderful and prosperous New Year.

Gary