I picked this up the other day. I was really torn between this and a jazz fest but to my ears I really enjoyed the very open sound of this one more so. Mine is a 1965 that looks to have gotten some new hoops at some point and new snare wires. Whoever owned it before me had them on wrong so that is likely why I got the drum so cheap.

I stripped the hardware, wiped down the inside (making sure not to touch the date stamp), clean and polished all the hardware and put a few coats of wax on the outside. It's not perfect but looks great to me and has aged well.

[IMG]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-rbUf9pmtwW8/UudJJtpYNpI/AAAAAAAABjE/_6TKeRGarAg/s800/20140128_010657.jpg[/IMG]

On this particular snare to seat the heads nicely and achieve a wide tuning range I used the heat gun trick. For those of us who have been into model aircraft its nearly the same concept as getting wrinkles out of model aircraft covering. This does not damage fragile flying things and so I was confident the drum would be fine.

I started first with the snare side head. I got it just finger tight and then applied heat all the way around the head following the bearing edges. I lastly made a few passes around the middle. I could see the head take to the bearing edges well and slack being removed even before tuning. I then tuned up very easily.

I repeated the process for the top head although with a coated head it was a little more tricky and I applied a much smaller amount of heat to achieve the same effect. Again the head tuned up very nicely.

Lastly some group photos. This is rare as my gear is usually spread out with my various bands.

[IMG]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-FvIKEK2KGfA/UudIst5D7jI/AAAAAAAABi8/ZygP5U0_6hc/s800/%255BUNSET%255D.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zvTpM8G7H_I/UudHVegOBQI/AAAAAAAABic/xrMNhfSK3wc/s800/%255BUNSET%255D.jpg[/IMG]

No cracks in the shell btw just some hairline imperfections in the lacquer on the snare.