Here's a small snare drum project I just started and wanted to share.
I recently got back an old Slingerland Festival snare that I had lent to a family member and I didn't know what to do with it. The steel shell was badly pitted but the rest of the hardware was in good shape. I thought I'd look for an old Slingy wood shell to transfer the parts to and use it for quieter gig's and rehersals.
Anyway, I found an old Chicago Slingerland RK shell on eBay at a reasonable cost so I fugured "what the heck". The black wrap was in really tough shape and it has one extra (small) hole where someone mounted a different 2-hole throw-off, but I just wanted the shell to build a nice old "player". This shell had the 3-point throw-off, and after discovering how rare and costly 3-point strainers are I decided to re-use the Rapid throw-off and butt from the Festival.
I orignally thought about re-wrapping this shell but after I got it I experimented with sanding / polishing methods and I think I've made good progress at restoring the finish.
I now want to preserve the condition of this wrap just in case someone wants to restore it further down the road. The shell is tight and round. Bearing edges are all original.
Not sure how many black 50's RK's there are out there. My plan is to fab up a couple of aluminum adapter plates so I don't have to drill any additional holes. I enjoy doing this type of work. Who knows. I may find a 3-point down the road. The additional hole would be hidden behind the throw-off.
So after I got the shell I carefully wet sanded the black wrap with 300, then 600 grit sandpaper which left it smooth but dull. I then followed-up with a soft cotton buff on my electric buffer with some plastic polish.
The wrap looks great now. Not perfect but I will probably spend a little more time buffing whenever I remove the hardware again. The wrap is really tight to the shell and the subtle variations in the texture of the wood sort of telegraph through the wrap.
It has a very classy old-patina look to it.
I've made up some templates so I can fabricate the adapter plates, so cutting some aluminum sheet is in my future.
Mark
