I've seen that, apparently because the shells are soft enough to be flattened.

The wood filler idea doesn't sound good to me - you're introducing a different harmonic and it might deaden the shell, plus it would be hard to get it sanded right.

If you rewrapped it and put the hardware back on before the contact cement hadn't totally cured, wouldn't the lugs and parts pull the wrap down to the flat spots like it was before?

That sounds reasonable.. but might screw up the wrap aswell. Ive been searching and googling about this with no result.. is this such a unusual problem?

You can use wood filler or better yet use bondo. Dries fast and can be sanded, just fill in the low spots. I wouldn't worry about the resonance of the shell, the glue and the wrap will do more harm than the filler.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Mmmmm...gosh, I dunno about that. Hmmmm

I understand the Bondo idea, I use it myself to fill in pieces of ply that have lifted during wrap removal...but....using it to raise the level of a depressed shell surface ? That is adding some mass to that area of the shell.

An alternative would be to add a re-ring on the interior, at the points where the hell is warped. It's not easy, but IMHO it's a better solution than filling in a low spot and then trying to level it out again.....

A lotta times this was the result of uneven tensions on the lugs causing an uneven stress on the shell walls....[/COLOR]

This was a painted shell. That infers it most probably will be thicker than a wrapped shell. Why not take it down to a specialist and have him sand it smooth. The shell could stand to lose a bit of thickness if it is destined to be wrapped. It makes more sense to smooth it out than to add thickness to a shell that will most likely be too thick for wrap anyway. Just a thought.

I guess we have to identify what the problem really is. I am assuming that the uneven areas are where the lugs were, causing indentations from the soft mahogany shell (yet another assumption). If that were the case that would not be a lot of mass added to the shell, no more than filling a spot that was removed with the wrap.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Hahaha...that isn't how I interpreted it at all. I read it as the shell actually being warped in between the rings....like, doing a dip near where the lugs/hardware mounted....:o

Indeed, if it is as Lucky assumes, just some small indents in the outer plys, then sure...bondo or plastic wood would do the trick.[/COLOR]

If you're gonna use a filler, Miniwax 2 part wood filler is the best, IMHO. I had a old shell that the wrap was interlaced with the last ply, I butched the wrap removal slightly so, I made a stencil of the diameter (a half piece) and made a sheet metal pattern, applied the filler and slowly worked the pattern up the drum to get the best and roundest fill.

Ditto. That's exactly what I was thinking. I wonder if we can get some confirmation from the owner....please.