good old fashioned paint remover will take that paint right off down to the maple. Then you can decide if you want to do a natural finish or redo the duco. You have to have a lazy susan or old record player to do the duco fade properly. I did a maple to brown fade on some drums to make them match a brown fade tama set. It came out nice. By the way those are single tension drums which are not as desirable as separate tension because you don't have as much adjust-ability.

very late 63 but most likely early 64 on those serial numbers,in most cases. maybe cob hoops too.

mike

Thanks for responses guys. @ thin shell - Just stripped a couple of wood hoops last weekend and it worked great. Just wanted to make sure there were no other cautions about the lead based paint. Cool idea about the record player for the duco - makes good sense, and if I was a real huge duco fan, (it's growing on me though) I might just try it. Thinking I'm more apt to try a varnish perhaps, if grain is nice, otherwise re-wrap. Definitely going to strip both sets of hoops, which are wood by the way, mlayton*, which personally I prefer for these over cob. Makes em look sorta like miniature kick drums. Thanks for the dating info though.

yep, i see the wood hoops now. those will look and sound great. good luck with your project.

mike

Purdie Shuffel did a whole tutorial a couple of weeks ago in the restoration thread on reapplying a duco finish to your drums.Check it out,its very well done and covers all the bases.(Might be a pun there but the spelling is off)

Steve B

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=23140

Best of luck with your project. If you need any questions answered along the way, please feel free to pm and ask away.

John

Hey Guys; Thanks for the responses. Sorry I didn't get back sooner, but I was outside stripping off duco paint all afternoon, then had to spend the evening with the wife.

Still not done with the stripping - what a messy job, but the shell and hoops that are near done are looking to be in nice shape. Really appreciate the great duco tutorial, and I might consider that, though I was also considering perhaps a varnish, and maybe a stain on the exposed wood. I would hesitate to repaint a shell, especially as I expect that it would be of less value, not being original anyway, which brings me back to one of my original questions - what sort of value would these have?

Yes, the single tension rods are a bit of a pain. Tried tuning one up and wasn't getting a great result sound-wise, though I'm sure the rods could use a bit of straightening, and lubricating. Thinking I could possibly add inserts and springs to the lugs, and add dual rods for more precise tuning. Was also considering that it might be fun to try and create a miniature kit, using one of these as the kick, (maybe wrap in some champagne sparkle I have) and try to match up with some smaller, proportional shells for the rest of the kit. Just a thought.

I do really like the turntable idea though, and I will keep my eyes open for a cheap one at the yard sales, or thrift stores. I'll try to let you know what I end up with in the end, and thanks again for all your help.

> - what sort of value would these have?

These are re-painted drums, I don't think I'd have any problem getting $850. to $1100. for them as they stand.

John

PS - But they are NOT FOR SALE! These sweeties are mine!

Hey Purdie Shuffle - no argument, that is a sweet looking kit, and a job well done. Had a peek on your other post, and am very tempted to try your technique. Trouble is, that these are just marching snares which don't seem nearly as desirable, (though I like em... would like em more if I could tune em to sound the way I want). Would it be worth the effort, and the expense to do the job on these, and it's not that I'm not up to the task? Actually spotted what appears to be a Ludwig marching snare on local want ads today, with metal hoops and 'lugs with separately tunable t-rods. Just inquired before I wrote this. We'll see...