Picked this up at a sale the other day. It's one ugly drum with a potentially great future as a looker/player. The thick white paint is flaking of the 3 ply shell. It may be very difficult to remove the old finish to have natural maple. Has nice nickel hardware, 3 xtra holes drilled by someone who put on 3 different lugs. Looks like an early 50's WFL concert snare and yep takes a 15" head. What would you do with this old blister??
Thanks,
Kelly
Probably a WMP re-wrap?
Kelly
WMP would look nice, but it looks to me like there's mahogany under that thick, white paint. Might want to strip it off and consider a natural finish.
Thanks BD. Regular paint stripper work OK?
Kelly
[COLOR="DarkRed"]I LOVE shells like that one...that is gonna make a kickass snare drum. Do you think it originally had double-ended snare lugs ?
...and, hey, Kelly...
is that ....
a.....
Classic...
strainer....
on there ? Falling Do[/COLOR]
Yep, you guessed it a Classic! Group Hug just like me hehehe...
It's a beat up old shell but oh what potential? What actually happened was that three of the lugs were snapped off somehow and someone put non-conforming lugs on and had to drill the extra holes...Sh---%^&%$!!!
It is actually the 16 lug version in 15" format. Should have a real nice deep woody sound when done over. flower
I will post progress pics along the way.
Kellyj
[COLOR="DarkRed"]Those big ol' shells always come out great. As long as the structural integrity is intact, they are awesome candidates for rehabs. Attached is my '50's Slingy, of the same size as yours....[/COLOR]
That's a beauty Jaye!
I'm considering the vintage WMP wrap that's available. It's supposed to be slightly off white and have a vintage look to it.
What kind of tone do get out of the 15 X 6.5 shell? Is that a one ply Radio King you have there?
Kelly
I thought a 15 would be cool too when I started this project.. but the sound of this thing is strange.. just really big and woody, no matter how tight you crank the heads. I'm still gonna hang on to it, you never can have enough snares right?
BTW it started life as a 15x10 parade snare (or maybe 15x12".. cant remember) which i cut down to 8" deep and re-glued the factory reinforcement hoop into, then shaped the bearing edge by hand. still need to do a wrap job on it but i cant decide on what color.. ill probably do some kinda glass glitter
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/504185652XcdawT?start=12
That's a beauty Jaye!I'm considering the vintage WMP wrap that's available. It's supposed to be slightly off white and have a vintage look to it.What kind of tone do get out of the 15 X 6.5 shell? Is that a one ply Radio King you have there?Kelly
[COLOR="Sienna"]I thought it was when I first saw it on eFlay...but it ended up just being their usual 3-ply mahogany. Nevertheless, it has a BIG, FAT sound to it....and those nickel beavertail lugs were just gorgeous.
The vintage WMP is always a good choice...it really does look like faded old WMP. And since yours is a WFL, they still used the common random-pattern WMP back then (as opposed to the more horizontal triangular patter which Ludwig adopted in the mid-late 60's. So that'd be a good, historically accurate choice.[/COLOR]
