Hey Everybody!
I love the page and all the cool stuff you all are doing with your cocktail sets. Keith--I saw your homepage and really dug the kids bongos and the hardware you chose.
I'm currently finishing up my Master's thesis, and my reward to myself when I'm done is to create a cocktail drum out of two old Ludwig 12"x15" marching drums, both in blue and gold sparkled (blue stripe, gold stripe, blue stripe). One drum lacks snares, and the other has gut snares. I have an old Pearl strap-drive bass drum pedal that I'm going to restore as the pedal unit, and I'll probably get a long strip of wood or aluminum, drill two holes in it, stick the floor tom legs I plan to add through it, and attach the pedal that way.
Cymbal-wise, I have an old set of 60's or 70's A Zildjian 12" hi hats and a 19" 60's or 70's A crash ride that I want to use, and I want to find a small tom to add to the set up as well. I have a couple cowbells, and I might add an arm for one.
Since I am still in the planning stage, I thought I would ask all the fans of the page to help me brainstorm ideas.
I actually have 3 15" marching drums. Has anyone ever found 24" vertical inches of drum two stifling, either sound wise or backache wise? My other drum is silver sparkle, so if I went with a three-drum shell, I'd have to refinish the whole set. Currently, I'm leaning toward making a drum out of two drums.
For about a day or so, I panicked about ruining the collectablity of these drums, until I remembered that no vintage drum store I've ever talked to had even the remotest interest in these drums. They really only seem useful to most players as floor toms. All the drums were free to me...high schools that were doing spring cleaning let me have them in exchange for cleaning up their drum rooms and doing inventory (one of the perks of being a high school English teacher!).
At this point, I have no qualms about drilling holes in the shells to add arms and legs. I do have qualms, though, about making an ugly drum. I'm interested in understanding techniques for joining the two drums.
Here are some of my ideas:
1)Find some way of creating tension rods that tread in opposite directions at either end so that I can just screw the two drums together without removing any of the lugs. This approach probably makes the most sense in terms of balancing time, money, and appearance.
2)Remove the lugs, strip the finish, join the two drums together with strips of wood with screws to join the two drums together (here the cosmetics get a little screwy) and refinish the drums in a cool wrap. I could minimize the amount of screws I'd need protruding from the drum, I believe, by purchasing four conga handles and one by one replacing the screw-joining system with conga handles on the outside and wood strips (perhaps wood glued) on the inside. The handles would make the drum extra functional, as I plan on using it for street performances. I'd like a drum I could carry around with one hand.
3)Leave the lugs on without any tension rods and just say oh well, then put a strong hinge on one side and an eye and hook on the other, as well as some sort of internal wood reinforcement to help the drums stay together, and then have a drum that can hold what little hardware I need underneath the baffle inside the drum.
Thinking about it, if I did pick a solution that required refinishing the drum, I could just remove the blue stripes at the top and bottom of each drum and replace them either with one bigger blue sparkle stripe or two slightly bigger blue sparkle stripes (to cover the gap from joining the two with the hinge method.
If I do join the two drums together permanently, does anyone have any thoughts on sealing the two drums together with some glue or epoxy like material?
Also, does anyone have any ideas for snares? I have two ideas:
1)Just leave the gut snares exposed on the outside of the top head.
2)Get a floor tom muffler, remove the felt pad, cut a 4" section off a set of snares (like the old ludwig snare wires that were welded onto a metal base plate at either end of the drum) and then connect the metal base of the snares to the metal bass of the floor tom muffler so that I can raise or lower the snares accordingly. I could connect the two either by welding or drilling, probably.
Baffle-wise, I like the idea of a circle of styrofoam with some sort of reflective material--wood or plastic--on either side. The oreo method a few people mentioned. I'd probably place it about 4" below the top head to leave a lot of space for a bass sound.
Keith, are those circle drilling attachements you used easy to find at hardware stores? I've never seen one.
Thanks for your help. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
Will
Summer Cocktail Project
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Keithcronin1
cocktail project
c@cktail project
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FamousWilly wrote:
...does anyone have any ideas for snares? I have two ideas:
1)Just leave the gut snares exposed on the outside of the top head.
I think it would be annoying trying to play around the snares, and murder for playing brushes.
2)Get a floor tom muffler, remove the felt pad, cut a 4" section off a set of snares (like the old ludwig snare wires that were welded onto a metal base plate at either end of the drum) and then connect the metal base of the snares to the metal bass of the floor tom muffler so that I can raise or lower the snares accordingly. I could connect the two either by welding or drilling, probably.
That method should work pretty well. I was able to harvest snares from some single-headed snare drums in Purecussion's "Headset."
Keith, are those circle drilling attachements you used easy to find at hardware stores? I've never seen one.
Yes, just look where the drill bits are for power drills. Greatneck is one of the popular brands - they make a set of hole-cutting attachments that go from small to about 2 1/2". The 4" hole attachment I had to buy separately, and it was rather expensive if I remember correctly. But I LOVE having the front vent in my drum.
As far as joining the shells, I'm not adept enough at woodworking to offer helpful advice. Unless you're REALLY tall, connecting 3 drums probably won't work. Remember - you have to have a fair amount of room between the bottom of the drum and the floor, to make room for the pedal.
24" seems to be the standard height. I wouldn't mind a 26" frankly, but my 24" is fine. But if I were tall I think it would cramp my style...
Good luck with your project!
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FamousWilly wrote:
...does anyone have any ideas for snares? I have two ideas:
1)Just leave the gut snares exposed on the outside of the top head.
I think it would be annoying trying to play around the snares, and murder for playing brushes.
2)Get a floor tom muffler, remove the felt pad, cut a 4" section off a set of snares (like the old ludwig snare wires that were welded onto a metal base plate at either end of the drum) and then connect the metal base of the snares to the metal bass of the floor tom muffler so that I can raise or lower the snares accordingly. I could connect the two either by welding or drilling, probably.
That method should work pretty well. I was able to harvest snares from some single-headed snare drums in Purecussion's "Headset."
Keith, are those circle drilling attachements you used easy to find at hardware stores? I've never seen one.
Yes, just look where the drill bits are for power drills. Greatneck is one of the popular brands - they make a set of hole-cutting attachments that go from small to about 2 1/2". The 4" hole attachment I had to buy separately, and it was rather expensive if I remember correctly. But I LOVE having the front vent in my drum.
As far as joining the shells, I'm not adept enough at woodworking to offer helpful advice. Unless you're REALLY tall, connecting 3 drums probably won't work. Remember - you have to have a fair amount of room between the bottom of the drum and the floor, to make room for the pedal.
24" seems to be the standard height. I wouldn't mind a 26" frankly, but my 24" is fine. But if I were tall I think it would cramp my style...
Good luck with your project!