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Just wanted to share a little side-project that I've got on the boil. I thought a few of you might be interested. I'll keep it short, since I'm in the middle of an assignment.
This is a set of shells from an old kit that I was given by a local drum dealer.
http://i.imgur.com/0pbUx7I.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/CgsHEiG.jpg
They're from a Gretsch Blackhawk 5pc kit, which might sound a little classy, but they're towards the bottom of the barrel, around the $1000 mark for a complete kit. The shells are a mix of basswood and poplar, so they're a bit mix-and-match as far as grain goes.
The original kit had a black wrap on it, which hides a multitude of sins. The wrap has been stripped off, and the shells are a bit of a mix. If you look at the kit you can see that the shells have been made of pretty much whatever timber they could find, just slapped on wherever.
The 16" tom and 10" tom actually look quite nice:
16" shell: http://i.imgur.com/FYnk6As.jpg
10" shell: http://i.imgur.com/TtnT2bC.jpg
The 12" shell is a bit ordinary, but I'll have to use it.
http://i.imgur.com/YB9VRWt.jpg
The snare and bass shells are not worth considering...
The plan is to convert the 16" tom into a mini bass drum, the 12" tom into a mini floor tom, and keep the 10" as a rack tom. This will address a few issues.
1. I have a limited amount of Wudtone to use and it wouldn't have covered a whole kit.
2. The grain on the snare and kick looks very ordinary. At least this way I'll have a kit that looks a bit classy
3. The 12" shell will be hidden a bit as the floor tom.
3. It will keep costs down a bit.
I'll update this as progress is made... things will be a little more expensive with this, but I intend to see it out. When I'm finished I'll have a neat 3-piece mini-kit that I can use for jazz and cafe gigs, and possibly jam sessions.
I'm in the sanding phase right now, trying to remove as much of that glue as possible.
Stay tuned!
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sounds good Tim, good to have another type of instrument on the forum although drummers always cop a fair bagging !
Some nice grain in the shells, should come up a treat
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Agree with Wokka. If you can keep that grain popping they'll look fantastic. This'll be an interesting thread to follow I reckon.
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yer you will need half a gallon of wudtone to cover all that timber !
I heard DB is trying to get rid of some conch girl wudtone haha
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Mmmmm... Conch Girl.... that would get the Gavmeisters attention :)
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I'll see how far I can go with what I have left. This is also my chance to really have a go at a decent colour graduation. I won't know till I try! I may well be hitting PBG up for another Honey/Mahogany burst kit!
I guess it really depends on how much pigment these shells can absorb. I've heard basswood can be pretty thirsty.
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Honey and mahogany burst sounds great. The hardware you've got stashed there looks like it's in pretty good nick, are you going to reuse it or go new?
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great project mate, sounds like it will look great
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Hey Pablo, as much as I wanted to go in another direction and get different hardware, I think I probably will stick with what I have.
I'd love to splash out and get brass tube lugs, such as the ones on this drum:
http://www.ludwig-drums.com/images/s...LB402BBTWM.jpg
but one lug will cost about $5, and I'll need 40... it adds up pretty quick.
The tube lugs are sexy, but spending that amount on the lugs kind of defeats the purpose of the project, which was to build this kit as cheaply as possible. So I will probably use the existing hardware. I know at least that way the holes are pre-drilled and the correct spacing for those lugs. I'll probably give all the hardware a bath in WD-40 and a good scrub with steel wool if there's any surface rust to get rid of.
