Mine are the PA ones, the tomes have the square ones, but the bass has this large gold badge? did all these have gold badges on the bass drums? I wonder If fibes has some sheet metal chrome in the old factory, how hard it is to remove the steel from the shell? wood compared to fiberglass any different?

slingerland!...

I had TWO Fibes sets back in the early/mid 70's... both had the RECTANGULAR Farmingdale NY badges as the drums were purchased in 1973... then the 2nd set in 1975. Both bass drums had the same badges as the snare/toms. I would need to see the badge on your bass drum to offer an opinion. Regarding your query on Fibes having some old sheet metal chrome left over...

... I tend to doubt it... plus, Fibes while rumoured to be "getting back on line", is still OOB at present. I know that Tommy Robertson has a drum shop in Texas, so I suppose you could hunt him down and inquire, but I wouldn't think that it would pay dividends in the way of success... but you never know! That said...

I used #304 stainless steel in 1/16" thickness as the raw material... had that sheet cut to the size I needed for the snare drum... then sent out for edges/smoothing... and then mirror polishing. That's what I meant about "working the material". There are a few steps in the prep alone. Mirror polishing... ( which #304 SS will tolerate ) ... removed a little in the way of "thickness", which I had taken into account when I ordered the 1/16"... but even with that, the material is TOUGH... not how shall we say... easily malleable... so the fitting to the shell is next... and then the drilling... and this is just for a 5X14 snare drum. I can only imagine the work involved on a complete set. Sheds a little light on WHY the drum companies abandoned this type of wrap/shell. Indeed.

The removal of the original piece of chromed spring steel was CAKE... easy! Care was taken in this case though as the Fibes shells are fiberglass and I didn't want to lose too many fibers. This drum being EARLY and a prototype is a "hand done" fiberglass shell and painted white inside. Final production model Fibes were usually painted black, otherwise they are the same. A little heat from a blow-dryer is all it took to release the adhesive holding on the chrome wrap.

Tommyp