Contact Paper

[Dark Drummer]

aight you konw how alot of high skool drumlines put diff contact paper on their drumms each year (we just got done doin that yesterday at my skool)  but while i was puttin the contact paper on i got to thinking would you be able to do that to a drumset?? i kant see a problem with it but i have been known to be wrong b4 so do any of you guys see anything wrong with it??

[Bart Elliott]

First of all ... we've GOT to get you to start using a Spell Checker before you post!  ;)

There's no reason that you couldn't use contact paper on your drumkit ... but some people will probably ask you ... why?

Drumlines do it when the budget doesn't permit them to purchase drums ... finished with the school colors.

There used to be a product years ago called Geddit ... which allowed you to recover your drums with this stretchy, rubber material ... and it wasn't permanent. You just take the hardware off the drums, wrap the drum, the put your hardware back on. Anton Fig used to use and endorse this product, although I don't think it's being made any more.

[Mark Schlipper]

my drums are currently wrapped in matte black contact paper (hard to find i might add) ... martha stewart eat your heart out!

why? because they needed it, and im poor.

ive got old funky budget drums.  the original wrap had been spray painted (not by me), was chipping, peeling, generally in crap condition.  i pulled it all off and because of the glue residue knew that staining was right out.  i sanded them as smooth as i could and wrapped 'em in contact paper.  looks sharp.  

[Bermuda Schwartz]

I had used contact paper MANY years ago, and also tried the black matte paper, in-between walnut, pine, and some atrocious silver foil marble-ish paper more suited to a bathroom!

When applied evenly, it looked great even close up. Wrinkles were a dead giveaway, as were the inevitable tears in the paper, but in the 70s & 80s, there weren't any alternatives, and the fabric 'recovering' material was fairly limited in colors/finishes.

[Daddy0]

Worry less about how your drums look and more about how well you play them.
I have noticed a somewhat inverse relationship between how shiny and new a band's equipment is, and how good they are (this may not apply to big name bands with lots of dough and promotionals).
Bands that are tight have been playing a lot together, and their equipment takes a beating. Judge a drummer by his or her style, timing, chops, etc -- NOT by what their set looks like!

[Mark Schlipper]

hey daddyo, im sure no one here would argue that your playing is more important than your gear.  but its been my experience (and one ive heard echoed from others) that the better you feel about your kit, the more likely you are to hang out at it and practice, and the better youll play.

and for a kit like mine, the old wrap had actually gotten to be detrimental to the sound of the kit.  loose crappy wrap sits unevenly on a shell and hinders its resonance.  and you end up with rough nasty bits getting all caught up along the edges, thus messing with the head and your tuning.  

so it doesnt all have to be cosmetic.

[eight]

I stumbled across this on another site. I copied it and saved it in my files so I wouldn't have to go find it when I decided I needed it. (all this was said so that I wouldn't get flamed or anything on the off chance that the author reads this board)


Refinishing your drums
Are you sick and tired of the finish that you have on your drum shells? I was. After years of packing them off to clubs, going on the road, and general wear, tear,bashes and scratches, it was driving me nuts! It also made me feel pretty good when a fellow musician or drummer would check out my kit and say, "Whoa, Dude, nice finish." Embarrassing. After racking my brain awhile and convincing myself that I was going to have to paint them, (Not a pleasant thought), I figured it out. Here's what I did to make my kit look and sound as if it had just come from the showroom floor.

Any drummer can figure out how your drums are put together. Find yourself a good sized work space, (garage, spare room etc..) and taking a drum at a time, dismantle the whole nine yards until you have no hoops, lugs, or mounting mechanisms left on your drum. It's a pretty good idea to take all the hardware from each drum and place it into each drums' respective carrying case.

If your drumshells are wood finished with lacquer you don't have to finish reading this tip. Unless you're a journeyman level painter or wood finishing master, I wouldn't tackle it, after all your naturally finished drumkit is beautiful. Leave it alone.

I'm dealing with drum shells that have a thinly wrapped cover that is extremely noticeable when taking the heads on and off. Find the seam on your shells skin and with a putty knife pull one corner up enough for a good grasp and just peel it off. Pretty ugly underneath. I'm not sure how many people have figured this out but I am sure that none has the finish that I have on my drums. Go to your nearest Cabinet Maker or Company and ask to see his samples of Vertical Laminate, it is extremely important to ask for VERTICAL as opposed to Horizontal or standard laminates for countertops. The vertical laminates are thinner and more flexible for fitting around curves. There are thousands of finishes available and I'm not kidding, it took me 3 months to pick mine,(NO, I'm Not telling.) Also, If you were to use something other than vertical, the combined thickness of the material on the drum would cause your heads not to fit, suicide would be necessary then. The guy is going to roll his eyes at you but once you order a 4 foot by 8 foot roll, (Enough material for a standard 5 piece drumset,) he'll realize that you're serious. (4 to 6 weeks delivery)

Tools needed: Your Mothers cloth sewing tape measure- straight-edge (yard stick or t-square)-laminate scriber/cutter (razor-knife works good)-Contact cement(Hardware Store)-9inch paint roller and tray-cordless drill/drill bits

How to:

First, measure your drum from rim-edge to edge and around shell. Do the same to your laminate, not brain surgery here. You can also take the shell covering that you peeled off and use it as a template to insure an exact measurement, I wish I had thought of that when I did mine, Hmmm...

After you've scribed your lines just carefully bend them up and they'll snap apart on their own.

Here's the fun part.

Put a drop-cloth down and bust open the can of contact-cement and pour it in the paint tray. With your roller, apply an even coat on the shell of the drum and on to the back of the laminate and let both surfaces dry. This usually takes about 10 minutes to dry thoroughly.

Take your piece of laminate and line it up on the factory seam of the drumshell and press it on and around the drum. The two layers of dried contact cement bond together instantly and if you cut it to longit's perfectly ok for it to overlap a bit . If you didn't notice, the covering that you peeled off was overlapped also.

Follow same procedure for all your drums. Once this is complete, using a cordless drill and a drill bit the same size as the existing lug holes, drill out your holes from the inside out and then reassemble your drum. Immediately installing the lugs is very important. The contact cement has done its job but it's good to have pressure applied for a day or two. Installing the lugs gives equal pressure needed to the finished surface.

Don't your drums look beautiful?

I finished my entire 9 piece kit in one day and now people crap their pants when they see it and hear it!

Good Luck


I hope this helps...

[Daddy0]

Yea, Mark563 -- there's comes a point when the finish gets so bad that something's got to be done! I guess I was thinking more along the lines of a perfectly good finish that's not your flavor of the week, you know, like those cell phones with the interchangable covers. It's like, who cares?

I actually stripped the nasty fiberglass off an old set of Pearls once and stained the wood underneath -- I just couldn't take how nasty they looked anymore!