Keith - I just put together a 'natural Mahogany finish' bass drum, with natural maple hoops and Mahogany inlays. It looks killer! Why not try Mahogany strips against the natural maple on your kit. Dark wood against light wood, always an eye pleasing combination.

Food for thought...

John

Check out some of the custom kits at http://www.candccustomdrums.com/. They use inlay of different wood and plastic wrap finishes. Beautiful stuff.

Thats a great idea, I looked at some of those c and c. Saw what I believe to be maple with mahogany. That looks great. How would I go about doin that? Purdie, did you get a thin ply of mahogany, or order that like that? I just ordered a set of hoops a wk ago with 3/4 inlay groove. Can I still do that? I dont want to order another set, and Im not sure If I wasnt to keep it maple. Its really growing on me though. Thanks

Keith - I asked Jeff (JC Cabinets) to cover some club date shells for me using a mahogany veneer. At the time I placed my order, I also requested two matching strips for the bass drum hoops. It's just a mahogany veneer, you can pick up a nice long piece for $20 and under on ebay.

Send Jeff (jccabinets) a PM and ask him if he has any of the mahogany veneer he used on my job laying around. You'll do better buying the pre-cut strips from Jeff than from any other source. Assuming he has some left from the batch he used on my kit. Won't hurt to ask!

Here's what the hoops looks like: (Sorry, bad lighting. I took the shot at night in my living room with incandescent lighting!)

[IMG]http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n632/PurdieShuffle/cb2_zps28448030.jpg[/IMG]

John

That looks awesome Prudie, real nice and classy looking. Thanks I keep that in mind

Depending on how wide you want the strip, Woodcraft (http://www.woodcraft.com/search2/search.aspx?query=decorative%20veneer&pagesize=120) sells pre-cut strips in a 36" length. Many are patterned (squares, checker board, etc.). Same thickness as veneer. Their veneer is kind of high though. Here's another link for veneer and banding strips.http://www.veneersupplies.com/

As far as putting it all together, JCC would probably know best but what I've seen is gluing all your pieces on some kind of backing then you have one piece to work with rather than trying to line up several pieces on the shell.

Yes, I was thinking a patterned veneer inlay as well... Take a look at the gallery here for some colour ideas..

http://www.metrodrums.com/gallery.html

If the shorter length veneer strips are not your bag, Mirror chrome looks good on most hoops..

Cheers

thanks for the tips and heads up. I really like the wood on wood.