Hi everyone,
i recently acquired a mismatched, orphan set of 60's Gretsch Roundbadge drums, 12, 14, and 20. They sound great. Not in mint condition, but nice.
I was thinking of either rewrapping them in champagne sparkle, or perhaps leaving the wrap off and doing the traditional natural wood look (Charlie Watts, etc), which might sound better anyway.
What would you guys do?
PS, I have another roundbadge kit wrapped in silver glitter already.
Thanks
Go for the natural wood look, if you can*. That way, you'll have the glitzy look (silver sparkle), and the classy look (wood).**
*a lot of Gretsch shells don't look good underneath the wrap. Unwrap them and find out.
**forget what I said if you think they look fine right now. Mismatched kits can be hip.
You might consider wrapping them in a natural wood. There are some beautiful plies out there and they take a stain very well.
I think that there is a strong probability that the stripped shells will not have a nice enough appearance if sanded and lacquered with clear or tinted transparent finish. If the drums were mine, I'd first strip the old mismatched wrap, and then either:
1). sand the shells, and have an auto shop shoot them with black lacquer and clear coat
or
2). wrap them in a high quality solid black laminate--not the cheap crap
You can still get your "Charlie" on with the slick looking black drums.
thanks guys! Great suggestions.
I'd go with the natural as you have a sparkle set already. However you can achieve that would be great.
You can't go wrong with those choices. Either one would look fantastic (assuming the wood looks good underneath the wrap). I'm partial to wraps over wood finishes, but it's a matter of taste.
Since you already have a glitter kit, have you considered a pearl or a satin on this one? BDP and WMP both look stunning on round badge kits. And I've always loved Art Taylor's gold satin kit. (Satin has the added advantage of costing about 1/3 of champagne sparkle, but then again, it's much less durable.)
Post pics when you can. Enjoy!
Not sure you all understood my suggestion. I'm speaking of the thin natural wood ply wrap that has a tape back. There are several members on this forum who have wrapped thier drums in the natural wood ply wrap and stained that. It's not the wood under the removed wrap. It's a new ply wrap.
I understood you; I'm thinking about doing this with some shells I've got. I basically consider that to be another type of wrap, and I suggested just leaving the natural underneath. Probably advise is premature until the wraps are removed revealing the outer ply.
Sand with 220 then use an oil called Maloof that Rockler sells. Easy to apply then you let it sit for 24 hours. Use 320 wet/dry paper and put the oil on the paper and sand the shells again. The wet sanding of the shells isn't removing much wood, it's mixing the wood dust with the oil and starting to fill in the pores. Repeat the process (waiting a day in between to dry) using 400, 600, then 800 grit paper. The finish will amaze you and it's super easy. I redid a set of Radio Kings that were originally painted and they turned out great and sound wonderful. The original paint had mostly flaked off. PM me if you have questions.
