As I understand it, serious work has kept Willie's guitar afloat--despite the cavernous hole.

Wouldn't that be nice?!?!

I love this topic as I am still learning. May not be the best analogy, but with classic and vintage automobiles I prefer stock rather than modified. I know there is a market for hot rods, but I love seeing the cars the way they were.

I feel the same about drums. I know sometimes original parts can't be located and some wraps and lacquers are beyond restoration. Despite my personal preference about these things, I recently made a decision that flies in the face of my own preference.

I've been working on my late 40's Radio Kings and the bass drum hoops needed a lot of work. Best I can tell from research, these RK's in Marble Lacquer bass drums had black lacquer hoops with WMP inlay. As I was planning on completely restoring my hoops I had a decision to make. I don't think the black hoops look all that great with the Marble Lacquer colors so I decided to have the hoops stripped and stained rather than repainted black. I almost chose to go with silver or gold sparkle inlay, but decided to stay with WMP. Jack Lawton did a fantastic job on them and I think they look great next to the drums. But they're not "stock".

[IMG]http://debrajeans.smugmug.com/Music/Late-40s-Slingerland-Marble/i-jj6BwLL/0/M/Slingerland_Marble%20Lacquer_Radio%20King07-M.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://debrajeans.smugmug.com/Music/Late-40s-Slingerland-Marble/i-nHJR7qd/0/M/Slingerland_Marble%20Lacquer_26%22%20Bass_01-M.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://debrajeans.smugmug.com/Music/Late-40s-Slingerland-Marble/i-Qv8cGM5/0/M/DSC_0033-M.jpg[/IMG]

On the flip side, there is missing Marble Lacquer paint on the shells that I'm going to leave alone. I've had a couple of folks tell me they can match the paint perfectly, but I don't think I want to take that gamble.

[IMG]http://debrajeans.smugmug.com/Music/Late-40s-Slingerland-Marble/i-JMz9ZWk/0/M/Slingerland_Marble%20Lacquer_RK%20Snare_79-M.jpg[/IMG]

So I took some liberty with the bass drum hoops, but don't want to mess with the mojo of the original Marble Lacquer.

Dan

Of course you can always sand them again and repaint them if the mood suits you. I like them better that way as well.

Beautiful, I like the natural maple as well, it sets off the marble finish.

The hoops were done to match the custom built snare drum that resembles an early 60s Concert Aristocrat.

With my RK's I'm striving for a factory/period correct restoration. The shells survived the best forgotten period of trash the bottom hardware and paint everything black. Quite a bit of time, effort and expense but they are returning to day one new.

They will never be collector grade. That was lost many years ago. I like them because of the modifications that have taken place over the years. True players kit. Here is one of the 13" toms.

Upgraded many times to the latest hardware. Would have been easier to get a new drum. Much joy in trying to sort what prior owner's were thinking.

Creighton

Running my RK's w/RIMS and a snare stand to avoid drilling them. Not really sure why, they've been modded already. Bass is a 22", cut down from a bigger one by the Pro Drum shop.I guess it's because the toms are unmodified, and I'd prefer not to do it. I like the lacquer. It's flaking, but just leaving well enough alone. Wish it would get really bad, so I could justify staining and finishing them![IMG]http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad173/wdonley/abb0285e-8093-41f4-93a3-75430e56dbc3.jpg[/IMG]

I appreciate everyone's attitudes toward restoration, especially when it comes to keeping an item as original as possible.

This thread got me thinking about an area that has always troubled me. To polish or embrace patina, especially when the 20's - 30's Ludwig and Ludwig nickel over brass shells are concerned.

As a bit of an antique collector in other areas, I can tell you that when an antique has it's patina removed, it ruins the value of the item. So why does it seem acceptable to polish the heck out of a nice NOB L&L Standard that took 80 years to gain that nice patina? I am not talking about giving the shell and hardware a good cleaning, addressing rust issues with tension rods etc.

However, I have noticed that when someone buys a NOB L&L Standard, the first thing they do is attack it with a Cape Cod cloth or simichrome and make it as shiny as possible. BTW, both of those products remove nickel plating when polishing, nickel that you can't put back. I know it is an easy and gratifying polish, but I wouldn't buy it down the road. Just kind of removes the mojo for me.

Just my morning coffee rant.

Sometimes the finish isn't patina at all but rather a chemical someone used to clean it with and ended up destroying the finish. My 82 brass dw is a prime example of owner neglect. You could still see the wipe marks all over it where a harsh chemical was used on it. It absolutely destroyed the brass outer layer. Unfortunately quite a few vintage drum owners are terrible stewards of our American vintage drum legacy.

The sad part was when Ryan sanded the layers off, the bottom layer was Black! That means it was originally the rarest Camco finish of all, Ebony Stain, and with a 24" bass drum...Here are two of the toms, 13 and the 16"