Hello- I own an amber Vistalite w/out lights but a friend had a Tivoli set 'back in the day' and I recall seeing only washers against the shell so the keepers must have been as you think/ not under the washer. (I wouldn't think any wire should press into the shell) Hope you get it working!

Thanks for the info. It is odd. I am now finding some pictures of other peoples Tivoli sets and all of them have the washer pressing against the keeper wire. I would think that the wire would put undue pressure in an awkward pattern agains the shell, thus creating a potential cracking hazard?

Without seeing it, is there a way to put a softener between the wire and shell? i.e. felt?

Cheers

Not sure if felt would disperse as well as a washer might? It is odd design. Here are pics of the bass and the snare. The snare is the only drum that has star washers.

snare inside

With the BD, can you wrap the wire around the screw on top of the washer like the snare? That way the pressure is between the screw head and washer...

Cheers

Well we all know some 'factory installations' weren't always the best! I think you are right in keeping the wire from contacting the (softer) shell... If it isn't 'factory correct' who cares.... it's the 'better' way!

There is a sold tequila sunrise tivoli kit listing on Reverb that shows the wire keepers installed the same way.

[IMG]https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--E9rAJQNZ--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_1600,q_80,w_1600/v1498706596/bp5h0vofawnotwnezbxe.jpg[/IMG]

I saw another picture of the inside of a snare that shows the keepers exactly like yours.

The screw/washer combination is called a SEMS screw. They are put together as a pair at the factory and the washer cannot be removed. There may be enough free play to mount the wire between the screw head and the washer but there probably isn't.

The snare appears to be made up of three separate parts. Flat washer, toothed lock washer and screw. It looks like maybe since snares take so much more tension than toms and bass that they went the extra mile and installed the wire under the lock washer instead of under the flat washer. Using three separate fasteners is more of a pain from a labor standpoint but they must have felt it was necessary. They mush of felt it was OK under the flat washers on everything else. It definitely doesn't make sense but appears to be how they did it.

Problem is, those washer/screw combination are permanent. I can not separate them. Are they machined on? Anyhow I couldn't swap the position of the wire keeper even if I wanted to. Oh well. Odd that on the snare they use a different washer/screw combination.