Drum Surgery

[Keith Cronin]

I bought a slightly damaged shell from Phattie, and resolved to do some experimenting, even if I ruined the shell. I'll post pics soon, but in the meantime I'll describe what I did to this poor unsuspecting drum.<br>
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In the bass chamber, I cut a 4" round hole, facing the audience. In the snare chamber, facing the back, I cut three 2.5" holes to vent the snare. I started with just two holes, but wanted even more air and sound to escape, so I cut the third. For all holes I used a circle-cutting attachment on an electric drill.<br>
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I cut a thin plywood baffle with a jigsaw and mounted it about 5 or 6 inches down (I'll measure it when I photograph it). The baffle was NOT an airtight fit, and the snares still buzzed like crazy every time I hit the bass drum. I then worked on making it a tighter fit, using weatherstripping, but it STILL buzzed badly. It was not from air leakage - the baffle itself seemed to help transmit the sound wave. When I'd hold my hand over the baffle (with the top head taken off) and hit the bass drum, the baffle acted like a drumhead; I could feel it move. Strange.<br>
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So I got creative and cut ANOTHER baffle. I laid a bunch of pillow stuffing (fiber fill from a craft store) on top of the first baffle, then lowered the second baffle on top of it, bolting them together to make a baffle "oreo" with the pillow stuffing in the center. This was crude, but effective. I finally got the level of isolation I wanted.<br>
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It was very important to me to be able to get good sounds from both the bass and snare, as I like to use this drum by itself, with no external drums needed. I do have bongos that I use, but on some gigs all I want is kick and snare, with the Zen simplicity of ONE drum.<br>
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I'm very happy with the result. The hole in front looks okay to me - I edged it in black, which improved the appearance. The shell is a dark green hand-rubbed oil finish, but I dig vintage wraps, so I'll probably have my buddies at Resurrection Drums refinish the drum for me when I get a gap in my gig schedule.<br>
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-Keith <br>
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[Steve O'C]

I was wondering if I could get a "damaged" shell also..... Could you help me????

Steve

[palacki808]

Hey Keith, where did you get those cymbal holders for your cocktail drum? I have two from an lp claw, but they don't have any knurling where they mount to the drum and thus I'm afraid they'll slip. What you have looks like the perfect solution, where did you get them?

-Joe