Status of the Makeover

The reclamation, uh restoration continues on my new Canwoods.

For 2-3 weeks now, whenever time can spare, I am pulling apart my drums, cleaning, tweaking, tuning, polishing, and replacing damaged parts on them. With each part I replace, with each piece of chrome I polish, and with each drum I clean, the drumkit looks better, and sounds better that it ever did -- that is since I have become its' rightful owner.

As of today, each drum has been completely disassembled, the bearing edges cleaned of gunk, the drum shells cleaned with Windex and/or wood cleaner (also remember that Windex cures all that ails you).

All drumheads have been replaced including the resonant heads, which are often neglected. An Evans EQ pad now provides the desireable amount of muffling I wished in the bass drum. All tuning lugs have been greased with petroleum jelly. New stands and hardware has been purchased, all chrome components have been cleaned and buffed to a gloss shine with chrome polish. A new snare strainer has been replaced, as the old strainer was damaged beyond repair, as well as a 50-strand snare installed on the underside of the drum. The tom mount on the bass drum has been upgraded with new parts. Lastly, new bass pedals, hi-hat stands, and snare stands have been purchased to accommodate my new kit.

Given the fact that I have spent between 3-4 hours cleaning each drum, you might say I have already invested a lot of care and attention to my new babies. In fact, I have spent much more time restoring them, than I have had playing them.

Though the drums look a lot better, and sound a lot better than what they did when I first received them, all is not finished. There is still a lot of work to be done on them before I can consider the restoration complete. The following details what still needs to be done:

The bass drum hoops need replacement. I would like to determine a way I can stain replacement hoops to match the color scheme currently on the drums. This will prove to be difficult, as I would think only a master craftsman would be able to create an exact match.

The bearing edges need to be evaluated. I am fresh out of large, smooth, perfectly flat surfaces such as a granite slab.

Some hardware still needs to be replaced. The triple-flanged hoops on the snare drum will likely need replacement, as they are rusted. I may consider replacing them with die-cast hoops, but those are very expensive. There are a few tuning lug casings which require replacement on the snare. I may as well just redo them all.

I am missing only 1 piece of hardware. This is the ever-important throne. I have already identified what I will buy, but it does not come cheap.

The biggest job of all will be redoing the lacquer finish, which (I hope) will mask all the scratches, gouges, dings, dents, and other imperfections of the finish. My research has concluded that the restoration of the lacquer finish, without affecting the stain of the drums, is possible. This is also very risky, as I could really mess up the appearance of the drums, if I do not express due diligence where required. The end result will be -- if I may say so -- breathtaking.

If I have very little to do this summer, it is likely that I may be able to accomplish the entire restoration project by the time the Savoys return from their summer hiatus.

Not only am I looking forward to playing my Canwoods on the gig; I can't wait to record with them.