Peter Brown's ShopTime

The guy I sold my shells and hardware to, recently sent me pictures of his completed kit. He did an amazing job!! There was a small pang of regret when I saw them all decked out in their new black sparkle glory but the truth is, I would never have played them. Plus he did an outstanding job, and I wasn't fairing anywhere near as well as that! He should get a ton of use out of them now, and loads of pride to boot! Before: And after: close up on the snare: Here's a link to the Photostream with more shots. Well done Gabriel!

As much as I hate to do it, I have to admit that I am not enjoying this drum restore. I convinced myself that I was in it to see the drums in good shape, but I don't think that's true. Yesterday was my first day of buffing out the finish. It just wasn't right. Some parts were perfect but it wasn't universal. I had small runs, orange peel and other imperfections that really showed after going to the buffing wheel. I took a deep breath and gave it one more try. I pulled out the sand paper and sanded down the drum yet again bringing it back to smooth 220 grit feel. I resprayed the lacquer and within 3 minutes I'd already spotted a run. It was too much for me. I got mad and kicked my very well constructed work bench. This stopped my in my tracks as my toe felt like I broke it. So much for cool and collected. I have no desire to fill myself with angst in the shop. That is not why I go out there. So I'm posting them up on craigslist and removing the temptation of gett...

Okay... This is going to be a lot harder than I thought. The years of paint alone is going to be a FREAKING nightmare to remove. I had a stripper on the surface of the small tom for about 5 hours with no signs of peeling... Additionally I've never sprayed lacquer. I think I'm in for a pretty steep learning curve here.

With the Unisaw restore finally behind me and no free tables to be found on my local Craigslist, I decided to take down my old drum kit from the garage shelves. Back 15 years ago when my waistline was smaller and my paycheck was much much smaller, I bought a broken down set from my drum teacher for $100. He was very excited about it, and told me "Its a Gretsch" This meant nothing to me, as I was junior in high school. Dave told me, "If you take your time and restore it, she'll be cherry." Cherry? Who says that. So it's been with me, through 6 jobs, 4 houses and 2 kids. Sitting in the garage gathering dust and generally being demoralized. I've never set it up, because it's always been in pieces. Additionally, from all the holes in the shells, it appears to have been on a battle field at some point. It's was at some point a 4 part Gretsch set from the mid 1960s. I know that, as I've located a sandwich baggie with three round badges in it. Look...