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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.
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It's been a while since I posted last... A massive amount of uni assessment and a few other things going on have meant that the projects have been put aside for a little while.
But I'm on a semi-holiday now, which means I have a little more time to work on the kit and also the 6-stringer. I've been sanding on and off over the last few weeks, and the shells are ready for staining.
The plan is to do a 3-stage burst, using the colours I already have from the LP build. The outer edge will get a coat of Mahogany deep colour, then I'll do an inner burst of Mahogany base coat and Honey. So in theory, it should go from dark mahogany --> light mahogany --> honey.
It's a bit of an experiment, so while I know what I want it to look like, I have no idea how it will actually turn out. Here goes then!
Pic of the shells with the deep colour on:
http://i.imgur.com/6EutJiL.jpg
In terms of the timber and the grain, it is very much a Frankenkit. Like a solid finish on a cheap guitar, the wrap hides a multitude of sins. The grain and possibly the timber in the outer ply differs significantly from shell to shell. But since I didn't have to pay for the shells in the first place, I'm not going to complain!
The 16" shell that will become the bass drum is definitely the star of the show:
http://i.imgur.com/fIEnomG.jpg
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looking good Tim, can't believe you got an outer coat on 3 shells that size ! You made the wudtone go further than I thought !
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Thanks, Wokks. Maybe it's because the shells aren't as big as they look... I still have a bit of deep colour left over! I should include the original kick drum shell in a photo for scale.
If I had to do the full 5-piece set I would have run out of Wudtone a while back - hence my decision to work on a "mini-kit". Besides, I already have three full-sized kits to choose from!
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mini kit sounds like a good option for small or acoustic jams, and alot easier to transport.
Crickey we might have to say you have DAS - drum aquasition syndrome !
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Stage 2 - The Burst, Coat 1
I bit the bullet and had a crack at the burst.
The challenge was to be able to quickly complete the top and bottom of the shell in 'hog base coat, so that it was still wet enough to blend by the time I had added the honey.
http://i.imgur.com/IeJn4Xg.jpg
The bass drum shell was the biggest challenge, since it has more than double the surface area of the 12" tom (the middle sized shell) and the outer ply was very, very thirsty. It sucked the dye in almost instantly! It was hard to get it done quickly and blend it properly. Hopefully those transition lines will blend out in the next coat.
http://i.imgur.com/MUCJlVU.jpg
That's right, folks - I still have enough Wuddy for a second coat! Maybe DingoBass accidentally sent me his magical bottomless jars by mistake.
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looking good Tim, can't believe you can get that many miles out of the wudtone ! Might pay to do small sections of blending at a time, but next coat won't soak in as quickly. I'd also steel wool the blend lines to lighten them before the next coat. Must take a while to apply and prep - more time than a guitar body !
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I'm finding out just how far this Wudtone can stretch... it looks like I might have enought 'hog to do the 14x5.5 snare drum shell as well!
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Three coats of 'hog/honey on. Starting with the top coat tomorrow!
http://i.imgur.com/UOH1N94.jpg
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Nice work Timsan. Really like the way they have come up.
Cheers
Darren
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They're shining really nicely already. Quite amazing. They'll look great with the top coats.
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They're coming up quite well.
I've still got loads of 'hog base coat... so I've done the snare shell as well:
http://i.imgur.com/nCQOZYt.jpg
It has three coats of 'hog. I also wiped a tiny bit of leftover honey over the top of the 'hog, which gave it a light coat of gold highlights before I added the top coat this morning.
It's transformed from something pretty ordinary into a shell that will come up quite well under lights.
I'll wait a week and put a second top coat on.
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That's fantastic Tim. You're right, these should fair glow under lights.
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So... I've got a bit of cleaning on my hands.
All the lugs have a bit of surface rust, and my normal plan of attack would be 000 steel wool and WD-40.
But I read something today that might change the face of drum resto for years to come: aluminium foil and water.
http://www.robertscycle.com/chrome-clean.html
I'm going to give it a crack and see how it turns out. See you on the other side!
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That's new to me. Definitely interested to see your results, Tim.
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I gave the alfoil and water technique a go, and it seems to work!
http://i.imgur.com/Y1IgyAE.jpg
The pair of lugs on the left are the original condition, and the pair on the right have had a rub-down with alfoil. Two down, 51 to go... then onto the hoops.
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Cool! Never heard of that technique before. Did it take long? Good luck with the rest.
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I spent about 30 seconds to a minute on each one. It polishes the chrome up nicely - the process relies on a chemical reaction rather than abrasion, so there's not a lot of physical effort involved, and the end result is nice and shiny.
Best to use gloves, too. I ended up with black residue all over my fingertips.
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Wow. You can certainly see the difference between the before and after lugs. I'll have to keep that in the arsenal, I reckon.
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Man this has inspired me. I am tempted to try it out myself
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Ha- just realized I haven't posted on this thread for a while.
So far:
- I had to buy new lugs for the bass drum. Some were missing and others were broken. So I spent $40 on 16 new lugs. Cheap and cheerful, but they'll do the job.
- I've got a Pearl Jungle conversion kit to convert the floor tom into a bass drum using the existing leg brackets.
http://im1.woodbrass.com/images/woodbrass/JG16.JPG
I'm using a Dunnett rail mount system to mount the rack tom off the bass drum...
http://www.gibraltarhardware.com/pic...dels/sc-rm.jpg
...but I have to replace the top floor tom leg bracket. The rail mount is a 12.7mm rod, but the existing brackets can only handle a 10mm. So I'm waiting on a new bracket.
Things are coming along. Pics soon. Got a big weekend with a Neil Diamond tribute gig in Hervey Bay, and assessment due on Monday. Bear with me!
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Hmm. Never seen one of those mounts before. Interesting!
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moving along nicely Tim, looks good
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It's been a while, but I thought I'd resurrect this thread and update on how things are plugging along. It's been more than 9 months, I've had to move and start a new job, and get used to the new routine. I'm just starting to dig out the old projects and get back into them again.
I still had a bit of Wudtone left (believe it or not), so I decided to have a crack at the snare as well.
Rather than burst it like the other drums, I opted to just put on some coats of Mahogany base coat (I'd run out of deep colour by now) and then a couple of coats of Honey over the top. Even though there's no grain to speak of, it looks quite nice.
http://i.imgur.com/nCQOZYt.jpg
Just last weekend, I got the hardware out and gave it a good clean. The hoops needed a scrub with a wire brush, then I gave it all the Alfoil treatment.
http://i.imgur.com/qCyeomx.jpg
It actually turned out quite nicely. The snare throw mechanism is completely stuffed, though. I'm going to have to shell out for a new one. Apart from that, the only thing left to do is clean the hoops for the toms, and put them back together.
...and then I can order some more PBG kits... ;)
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Dude.. This is cool! I love it!
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Second that comment from Kurt!! The snare is wicked awesome!
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Thanks, lads. It was literally an experiment to see what I could do with the last bit of Wudtone, and it turned out far better than I thought it would.
A bit more info:
Costing:
16 new lugs for the mini bass drum @ $2.85 each - $45.00
4x air vent grommet @ $4.50 each - $18.00
Dunnett rail mount system - $55.00
Pearl Jungle bass drum system - $45.00
Pearl ISS mount (found one secondhand) - $30
New Gretsch leg bracket for the mini bass drum to accommodate the Dunnett rail mount - $14.50
Total cost so far is roughly $210.
Frustrations:
I had to replace all of the lugs on the floor tom (mini bass drum) because a lot of them had the inserts broken off when the kit was being dismantled.
The two toms are mounted using 12.7mm L-rods, so I got the 12.7mm rail mount system. However when I went to fit it, I discovered that the floor tom (mini bass drum) leg brackets are designed to take 10mm rods. So I then had to get a 12.7mm leg bracket to replace the one that didn't fit. Grrrr.
The snare throw mechanism is completely stuffed. It wasn't the best to begin with, so I was prepared to upgrade it. I'm looking at roughly $75 to get something that's half-decent and has an adjustable mounting bracket. That way I don't have to hunt around for something that has the exact screw spacing that I need.
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Good work Tim looks great.
Pest welcome to the thread jacking squad super cool avatar haha
