Restoring a Ludwig Snare

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bguzaldo
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Bguzaldo

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Hey guys, My friend brought in an old ludwig snare 6.5 x 14 and it's got a turquoise green and red psychedelic wrap. For some reason there was this crazy head on it that allowed you to lower the hoop below the edge of the shell and the drummer before him just beat the hell out it and the rim is pretty chipped. I was wonding if you guys had any tips for fixing it. I didn't want to take the sander to it just yet and compromise the sound of the drum, but I'm willing to do some work on it.

P.s. I'm Not a drummer so bear with me if I may seem rather newbish

-Barrett
 
If it's an older deep drum in that wrap it could be worth quite a bit of $.

You'll need a router table, or a makeshift one if you want to do it yourself. I wouldn't want to practice on a nice Ludwig though, so you might want to check out a drum shop in your town. It's crucial to do a nice job.

If you search YouTube for "bearing edges drums" there's some info.

It would be a lot easier to figure out what to do to the meathead that did the damage! :mad:
 
Yeah I really couldn't believe what that guy had done to this beautiful drum, I'm not even a drummer and I could see (more so hear) it was a piece of art.

But to greg, it is the bearing edge that has been hacked quite a bit. I think I'll take it in somewhere, I just don't want to risk loosing the amazing sound of the drum.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
Bearing edge

If the bearing edge has a few shallow dents or chips out of it, you can sit the drum on some course concrete, with the ruff bearing edge against the concrete. Press down and rotate the shell. The concrete will grind the edge down a little bit. Then lightly sand it with med grit sand paper. This is a crude method, but it actually works. If there are large chunks gone, you can build the edge back up with a good wood filler, or I have cut fiberglass mat up in tiny particles and mixed it with 5 minute epoxy and apply it to the crater in the bearing edge. Then sorta shave it to the correct shape before it gets really hard. Then do the concrete trick. The main thing is to have a uniform bearing edge. If you use the epoxy method, be sure and mask the finish off with masking tape 1st
 
If you're doing it yourself, for the love of pete, be careful with the edges. Depending on how bad they are, you might want to ask around at local shops for someone who can work on those edges. I've "cleaned up" edges before by gently sanding them, being sure to carefully check them to make sure the edge wasn't getting too sharp, and the dips in the edges weren't getting worse. But even doing it carefully I've messed up.
 
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