18" bass drum will be even better IMHO.

I had the same head fitting problem with a Slingerland tom I bought off Ebay. Took it down on a large horizontal belt sander, but the rings on that shell are *very* deep!

Cool project!

Mitch

I agree. I was using a 16" marching snare for a bass. Too high pitched for me. Upgraded to a 26", but I don't play jazz.

I know the problem of pitch. I came across it in a previous project (16 bass, 10 rt, 13 ft, 12 sn) in which I also used a marching tenor-tom for bass drum. Most marching drums I come across have bearing edges designed for attack and volume,not so much for low end and tone. They have a subsequent small range of tuning. I simply adjusted the bearing edge (using a table router). Biggest different was that I made the outer curve wider, so the head needs less tension to fit without wrinckles. This way the 16 inch tom could be tuned quite low and got a nice tone.

Pics of the previous project. Orphans of widely varying sources. Premier/Taiwanese kids drum/pre-tama MIJ.

12 inch rack-tom-to-be has arrived. Thought it was pre-int 12 inch, but it wasn't. It was too wide, 31,4 cm. I decided I want to use the shell as it is and keep the holes that hold the tube lugs.

I had to cut it down anyway (customer wanted 12x8 instead of 12x10).

This is how I solved it: I installed a new re-ring (made from a piece of birch premier shell that I left over from cutting down a marcher snaredrum). Now normal 12 inch heads do fit!

14 and 18 inch shell waiting to be stained.

same problem with the 16 inch shell. Too wide. I deepened the re-rings. Glued in a piece of board with a center that I will use with an axis to slim the shell down with a table router and make it perfectly round at the same time.

12, 14, 16, 18 all stained/oiled and interiors coated grey. Waiting for cutting bearing edges. The 12 and 16 are structurally adjusted to make normal heads fit. Now I have to sand/oil the hoops.

Great work Bart. That will be a super nice kit.

thats gonna be cool

The re-ring extension idea is golden! Shells look really great!

Mitch