Looks like imperialstars to me. Why someone would strip the zola coat and refinish the inside is beyond me; perhaps Tama did it differently with the 26" drums. Not a lot of those out there. The bearing profile looks correct for early imperialstars to my eyes.

Thanks for the input.. If you were to buy a pre-made shell to try and recreate this sound in a 24x14 size, what would be the most important thing to recreate?

I'm going to do my best to recreate these edges as I assume this is where most of the character is coming from.. But would you think it is more important to focus on material or number of plies, or thickness?

Obviously the first idea that comes to mind is Keller.. like their vintage mahogany, (even tho I know that imperialstars are not real mahogany). Or is it more about the 7.5mm thickness? or having re-rings? I wish I could get my hands on the cheap Accent that I have to measure it's thickness and see if their are rings.. But the Accent shell doesnt seem to hold in the tone and resonate.. they are very lightweight shells.

It does look like a late 70's Imperialstar. Reason being the thin re-rings and 6 digits serialnumber. Early ones have thicker re-rings.

The shell is indeed Luan or Phillipine Mahogany, and why would someone strip the zola paint baffles me to no end. I'll rewrap this drum for sure.

I think the thickness of the shell is important, not so much how many plies is used. If you can get the same type of wood to make this drum would be fantastic. And I would definitely put re-rings to make it as accurate as possible.

I bought a 26" virgin bass as well, waiting for it to be shipped. When it arrives I'll make picture and post them here if you want.

Good luck and have fun making the bass drum.

I cheated... I found a 24x14 79 Imperialstar shell on ebay this morning and snagged it. :)

Whoever removed that Zola coat must be a genius, or the incredible hulk..

That stuff is nearly impossible to get off !!

That's why I was even questioning that it really was an Imperialstar shell and not something else with Imperialstar badge and hardware.

I've never seen zola coat first hand.. is it a spray that would need to be stripped off chemically?

My best bet is it was removed chemically. But that remains a mystery.

How the zola coat is applied I have no idea, I think it's sprayed on considering the splatters of different colors.

Some time ago there was some sort of spray paint you can buy that comes close to the zola coat, gives it a stone like effect.

There was a line of Imperialstars that had exterior and interior finishes like the one in your pics. The badge grommet looks original. They called the wood finish Cordia.

Well I'll be a Sum B lookie there!

[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/75525991/Screenshot_13.jpg[/IMG]

Thank you!