I'm in the process of restoring a few beat up orphan Ludwig shells and was considering rewrapping them in black oyster pearl. I already have a sparkle, and was wondering, if any of youz guyz know if the new wraps that precision, drumbuilders or jamin Sam sell look like the originals?
Any experiences with the new wraps? Looking for bop circa 61-64 not bowling ball.
In my search to rewrap my early 60's Slingerland orphans I looked at everything I could find from different suppliers. Was not that crazy about the majority of offerings. very few wraps really looked like the original vintage finishes. Your probably ok with some of the sparkles and a few of the pearls.
Jammin Sams at least has pics of the wraps on actual drum kits. you can see for yourself that some of those wraps are just plain ugly. That BOP you are asking about looks like bowling ball on steroids. :2Cents: I asked around as I had narrowed it down to WMP, Red Glitter, and Vintage Sky Blue Pearl.
FInally settled on the Vintage Sky Blue Pearl because of cost and looked pretty good or less horrid to me. I guess it is whatever cranks your tractor.
Sam is featuring them on his site.
I can tell you FOR A FACT that nobody's black oyster pearl wrap made today will "match" an original Ludwig drum. Not even close. The new wraps are waaaaay too blue, not even sure why they call it "black" oyster. And I mean the new material that is called "60's black oyster pearl".
I have 5 full sheets of Precision's black oyster that is great if you are rewrapping an entire kit because obviously each drum will match the other.
But as far as trying to rewrap a drum to match an original...not going to happen.
Actually, the current black oyster is so blue I'm not even using it to do a whole kit. I have 5 sheets of it and nowhere to go.
here's a picture of a rewrapped kit using Precision's 60's black oyster pearl.
Hopefully this picture shows how much blue is in the finish. Looks okay as a complete set but it won't match an original except in a poorly lit room![IMG]http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj507/Drumfactory/SDC11723.jpg[/IMG]
Yeah I figured nothing would match the originals. My intention is to plug and rewrap really beatup shells other people have refinished, painted over, rewraped, or drilled holes into. So it would not have to match an original early 60's pearl, I guess they would work but I don't want the set to look crapy either.
Are these the same pearls Ludwig uses on the "fab 4" and current keystone sets? Because they don't look terrible... Not original but not bad.
Looks like precision did a pretty good job on the patterning, but, like you say...It's basically navy blue!
I called Precision about this wrap and they told me, which I already knew, that every batch of oyster pearl that is made is exclusive to itself as each batch requires individual sequencing of colors and will never match a previous or future batch. Back when this wrap was the rage, very large batches were made at a time which is why drums of the same year probably will match each other. I've included a picture of one of the rewraps that really shows how blue this is. Yes, the pattern is very good and if it were just 10 shades darker it would be awesome!![IMG]http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj507/Drumfactory/SDC11459.jpg[/IMG]
The sparkles that are available (not glitters) (red, blue, silver, gold, green) are pretty much a dead on match to the Ludwigs from the '60s and '70s.
The sparkles that are available (not glitters) (red, blue, silver, gold, green) are pretty much a dead on match to the Ludwigs from the '60s and '70s.
Totally agree with the above quote. I have a very nice 1971 Ludwig Super Classic in Blue Sparkle. Ludwig's Blue Sparkle was always very rich looking.
While I love my 1971 Supraphonic 400 with this kit, I always wanted a matching Jazz Festival, but the current prices for nice examples are too high! I had a Keller (8ply + 6ply rings) shell wrapped in Blue Sparkle obtained from Precision Drum and the match is just about dead on! Pictures will be posted when complete!
