by Paul Creasey » 30 Mar 2011, 18:50
"Early New Year" eh?.........well, that's a laugh for a start!
Anyroadup, there HAS been progress on the rest of the Kit, with all Tom Toms now finished, and work started yesterday on the Bass Drum.
All the fittings have been removed, as has the old, faded "Military Red" wrap. Everything came apart easily, leaving the bare birch shell and beech reinforcing rings. However, cleaning-up the shell has been a bit of a pain! There is evidence of some work in the past, including filled holes for earlier pattern "disappearing" spurs and Tom holder. I have little doubt that the shell IS genuine Premier, but there were no distinguishing marks, date stamps etc etc to be found. The main problem has been removing adhesive residue but a couple of hours graft with an orbital sander has left the shell looking almost new - in some ways, I wish I'd opted for staining it, it really IS a lovely looking piece of timber!!
Main difficulty, now, is that I've not got enough Red Pearl wrap left to do a "proper" job! Even 20"" Bass Drums need two pieces of wrap, with the joints/overlaps located beneath the lower tension lugs. I DO have enough wrap, but will be unable to correctly position the joints, so I'm hoping that Drumbitz Europe (the highly recommended supplier of the wrap) can supply me with an appropriate offcut, as another 54" x 24" sheet (two used so-far) will set me back just short of £100 ("Subsistence Drummer", remember!).
I played the kit a couple of times with the re-wrapped Toms, and to my ears, they SOUND better, as well as looking MUCH better - there's probably a case for periodical dismantling and cleaning.
The Band has a "proper" gig in May - with me and my Kit on a Drum Riser (now there's a "first" for yours truly - nowhere to hide!) - so I'm looking forward to seeing how the re-wrap looks under stage lighting. I'll try to post some pics.
Regards
Paul