One more picture...this 'flat area' happens in a few locations on both batter and reso side.

The full kit is in immaculate cosmetic condition, however when delivered Ludwig pulled a dirty trick on me. This 20" floor tom came with white heads that hid the defects. All other drums came with the ordered clear black dots.

Man! I'll be interested to see if there are any suggestions for this. This is not your typical out of round situation. Nice quality control Ludwig! I had a 12" Pearl tom that I bought as an add on in 1980. The logo on the head was not lined up with the logo on the shell which bugged me. I took of the head to rotate to fi d that it would not. I took it back for replacement the next day.

And a last one...If the plys were separated, I could conceive a fix.

However the bearing edges are tight.

No answer from me.. But I hope someone can offer some suggestions??..

I have something similar.. Good Luck

Cheers

This reminds me of the Slingerland snare drum shell that I just saved by using steam and clamps. However that shell was solid maple, not several ply’s glued together. It was a lot of work to do what I did and I’m not sure this is how to fix yours. Basically, I made two blocks of wood. One with the outside radius and one with the inside radius of the shell. I used them with clamps to hold the shell round while it cooled from being in the steam box. You might try heating the flat area from the inside of the shell with a wall paper steamer, then clamping the flat portion of the shell between the two blocks of wood. It might work, just keep the steam away from the wrap, and maybe protect the wrap with something. If you try it, I recommend that you practice getting the blocks and clamping down, it needs to be very fast. And when you cut out the radius on the blocks of wood make sure they fit the “round part of the shell perfect.

The only concern I have is how the steam will effect the glue between the ply’s . In my case the solid maple shell had one lap joint held with old hide glue. The steam made it come apart. But I had steamed the entire shell, you will only be doing a small section. I guess worse case scenario would be you inject some wood glue between the ply’s after it has been fixed. If you needed to do that, you could use the blocks and clamps all over again.

Not sure if this is the way to go, just wanted to give my opinion.

Jeff C

It might be possible to fill in the indented area between the shell and the hoop gluing very thin veneer shavings one on top of the other, then having a wood shop with precision calibration sand or shave that spot down until a perfect circle is measured around the shell at that edge. If that would work you could then have that entire bearing edge precisely redone. The width of the shell would be different at this exact area, but I would think a perfectly round outer shell with a precise top bearing edge would at the very least allow your heads to seat well and tune up much closer to perfect than before. Of course you will have to consider if you really want to expend the hours and expense trying to correct the problem vs hunting down a matching same model/year/color replacement on ebay or elsewhere. Good luck!

Measure the inside if the shell where it is not dented and then cut a piece of wood to that length. You may have to taper one end of the piece of wood to ease it in and start pushing the shell out to round. This is time consuming because the wood need time to relax into its new shape and you may have to leave the brace inside the shell for three or four months. I know of several drum makers that put braces inside shells that might sit for a white (odd sized drums) to keep them from warping in storage.

The drum will never tune well as it is because the bearing edges themselves straighten out and cut across the head of the drum differently in that spot and thus disrupt the way the head resonates. It also isn't helping that there is a flat spot there because it also effects the way that the shell resonates as well.

Thanks for your suggestion...

Could I trouble you to give more detail or possibly post a simple mock-up picture?

I have no problem with 'time' letting it sit. My concern is the glue bond between plys will be compromised and make the wood weak. Once a head is put back-on and tensioned it may simply walk back in...no???