I think it is particularly applicable to nickel plating; I don't think I have ever thought patina-ed chrome looks good. hehe I spent hours and hours and hours rehabbing the chrome on my DownBeat kit. Looks much better! If it had been nickel, I may have been tempted to leave it.

Lucky, the way to get better sensitivity out of these is to use a 2mil hazy diplomat as your reso, it bonds better to the old edges and any wrinkles around the snare beds disappear.

Oh and realy tighten it

That's what I wanted to use, dude at the drum shop talked me into this, probably didn't have the Diplomat in stock!!

I'm afraid to tighten it down too much because of the clips?

I always have to order them online. I can't advise about a drum with the clips, I always exercise some caution when giving the heads a high tension especially on old vintage ones. I'm no expert though. Mine is just the 5- or 5/12". Go for a thin diplomat on bottom, 16 strands are the best as well puresounds I've just installed the extended ones on mine, I hope they last cos they were stupidly expensive, i was lucky to find some. Hope I'm not going on too long here but one more thing, mr purdie shuffle advised me to go round the edges a few times with 00.00 grade steel wool after I had already applied some beezwax. I'm pretty sure the drum sounds a lot better after doing that, I haven't done the reso side, I'm not ready to face the tug of war with the remo diplomat that is doing very well!Clapping Happy2

Moonweasel, only the nickel only the nickel. You would want chrome plated to look more clean.

It is here, Yea!! Thanks all for tips. If it was a complete original and older I would leave as is. Rusty and dirty now. Will look much better cleaned up.

Pretty cool. Edison School was written on the bottom rim. Anyone know which rim clips are correct? The 5 bell style on the drum look to line up the tension rods the best. Quite the collection of clips on there now.

Job well done by Buffalo Drum Outlet in Depew, NY. Anyone close should stop by. Store inventory on their card looked impressive.

Pictures in the daylight then it comes apart. Snare side head is so tight can't get strings through the hoop. Or it is the wrong hoop.

Stay tuned.

Creighton

I had the same problem with the butt side on mine, ended up using the plastic tape!

Might try a Ludwig snare head with a shallow collar.

On mine I filed a slanted groove on the collar of the head.

Thanks all,

Old Ludwig head works, hope new ones are the same. Great sounding drum. Took this pic for fun.

This one is a keeper.

Creighton