I read with interest,comments about how easy it is to "build a set" using Ebay & maybe Craigs List.
Well it's not so easy!! I have been looking for a sixties BDP Classic 22" kick drum for months. So going that route to build a kit is in my opinion the wrong way.
I hope to be proved wrong. I hope that someone contacts me with a lead as to where I can get one this week.
Any help would be appreciated.
Steve,
Thanks for your post. I'd been reading the debate about the 5" vs. 5.5" while I was getting this kit together. Initially I bought a '64 5.5" BDP Jazzfest for this project, but it was just in too good a condition to consider rewrapping. The one I'm using, which is actually 5.25", was rewrapped already so I don't have any hesitations about doing it over. If I have the chance to pick up another 5.5" Jazz shell down the road, I'd consider wrapping that and then having both sizes on hand for the day when Ringo lets us measure his snare.
Again, thanks for your you input. This forum is great.
John
With all due respect to Ludwig, and all Ludwig lovers out there (of which I am one!), the Legacy's are the most over-hyped, over-priced kits out there. I say this from first-hand experience from a friend who owns his own drum shop in Glendale, California. He's known in the industry and his customers are a veritable "who's who" in drumming. I've seen these drums up close and the problems with them. I know I should not be going on like this, but it pains me to see Ludwig charging so much for these drums and the problems they have. I don't mean this to be a post for Ludwig bashing, just to relay first-hand experience on an incredibly expensive set of drums.
Sorry, but I beg to differ.I have owned my Ludwig Legacy Classic kit since December 2009 and it has been a fantastic kit.I honestly think it is the best sounding set of drums I have ever owned. I have owned 5 Gretsch kits;2 Yamaha Recording Custom kits and the Ludwig Legacy kit is just as well made as the Yamahas and to my ear sounds superior to both the Gretsch and the Yamahas. Everything is perfect on my kit and the shells are just beautiful.
I've been working on the kit and thought I'd share some update photos.
After getting estimates on repairing the damage to the shells, I figured I could save a few bucks by doing the bulk of the prep work myself. It's been fun and a good learning experience.
Stripping the wrap was the first lesson. I tried a heat gun, but ended up pulling back a bit of the top layer of mahogany on the bass shell, despite going really slow. I then regrouped and applied a liberal amount of paint stripper to the wrap. That did the job perfectly, as I could slide a putty knife underneath the flexible wrap and it peeled off beautifully.
My plan is to fill the damaged parts of the outer mahogany with bondo. (I know, it sounds weird, but I've used it on wood before and it works well.)
Filling the extra drill holes was pretty straight-forward. I just got a bunch of dowel stock in different sizes and glued bits of those in. Once dry, I ground them down with a disk sander to get them close to the shell and finished them off with a palm sander.
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5591216520_009020df37_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5094/5591215142_6d8212e35b_t.jpg[/img]
The tricky part was filling the gaping holes in the floor tom and bass drum. The floor tom had suffered some heavy damage by the muffler. Using a router, I cut out the damaged section entirely, plus a bit extra from the mahogany on the top side.
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5070/5590622569_767a5d147d_t.jpg[/img]
I had a heavily damaged spare shell that I cut a section from and then shaped a matching plug by hand and glued it in.
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5063/5591214600_41e90b3aef_t.jpg[/img]
I hadn't done this before, and it worked out pretty decently. I still need to give the interior part of the repair a skim coat of bondo to cover the grafting seam.
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/5590625957_8fa73d169f_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5097/5591217968_4f4482cb24_t.jpg[/img]
I'm in the process of doing the same thing with the bass shell where someone mounted an after-market center stand for a double tom set-up.
The rack tom and snare required a lot less work. I filled some minor holes on the rack tom and retro-fitted the snare to take a baseball bat muffler, as opposed to the earlier type that it came with. I gave those two shells a coat of KILZ primer and hand sanded them to smooth over the dowels. I'll go back and give them a second coat/sanding and then will paint them to emulate the original white finish.
I'm hoping one or two more weekends worth of work and all the shells will be ready to send off for new BOP wrapping.
As always, thanks to all who have offered advice/tips. I'll post more photos as progress merits.
John
Thanks to all who offered advice, encouragement and parts.
I finished the last of the shell preparations a few weeks ago and sent them off to Gary at Precision Drum to rewrap and cut new bearing edges.
His work was great and I figured I'd share a few recent images.
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2766/5850759325_6d673a1931_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5316/5850756705_218571d4df_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5149/5850771475_613c80f781_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2592/5851296244_d5b28831d0_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2659/5850741117_103282c37c_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5118/5851290196_08b7883078_t.jpg[/img]
If anyone's interested, I posted the full restoration photos on Flickr: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjtmbVAi
Fantastic work. Love it.
