Man, I am absolutely loving these videos! Your thoroughness in showing each process is really helpful, and I feel better about finally trying to experiment with routing the bearing edges myself because of it! Thank you, my friend!
Nice work Sean. I like how you use a pencil as a guide coat to find your low spots on the bearing edge. When I was building my snare with Gary and George at precision I was watching George re-wrapping a gretsch tom for a customer and he showed me how bad the bearing edges came from the factory. Crazy.
Just awesome hope to see the finished product I always like the Ludwigs they sound so warm sounding and Bonham had the number one drum sets I believe the Green sparkle was always his choice drum on man.
thanks man! should be finished in a few weeks, lots of work! from what i've the green sparkle was his favorite and most often choice in the studio. thanks for watching!
Great video I envy you being able to do the bearing edges I've renovated a few kits but never been able to do the bearing edges as I haven't got the facilities to set up a router really looking forward to seeing how you do the wrap I always find that challenging !!
thanks! yeah, I'm fortunate to have the space! probably another week or two for the wrapping episode, unfortunately I caught a cold which is putting me a little behind but the drums are very close to being ready for the wrap! I did do some filming last weekend though.
Great video Shawn! I’m really appreciative of your videos as I’ve been researching for information on how to restore some old vintage shells in rough condition. Do you have any recommendations on how the laymen’s drummer could rework and even out bearing edges without having most of the tools you have? Should I take it to a professional at that point to get the edges fixed, or is there a half decent way to do it myself with a few simple tools? Thanks again and great work with the project Shawn!
Thanks! It really depends how bad they are, if they're not awful you can sometimes get away with flattening the edges a little on a sanding table and hand sand from there but most cases you really need to flatten and recut the edges. For that you'd need a sanding and router tables. Imo you'd probably be best off bringing them to a professional, most do not charge a ton of money and they'll be done right.
Yes and I actually have a snare project coming up after I finish this kit which I have to do that. I plan on doing a video on it but probably won't be for a few. Thanks for watching!
I thought the reinforcement rings on vintage Ludwig 3-ply shells (both the maple-poplar-maple and mahogany-poplar-mahogany variants) came standard with a 30- degree inner cut, not 45 degrees?
I read that online somewhere myself but as you can see in the video before routing my 45° bit lined up perfectly. I also checked 3 different Ludwig's with my angle finder, all 3 were 45° inside. I know Gretsch was a 30° but all the Ludwigs I've done they were 45° from the factory. Thanks for watching!
Good to know. I met Bill Ludwig III at the Chgo Drum Show 4 years ago and I asked him about this and he told me their re-rings were cut to 30 degrees but everything I’ve seen suggests they were 45s… go figure.
Hello! Nice work! Can you tell me what you used to remove the glue from shell? I plan to fix up an old Slingerland. I have already started, but it seems to me that it is much easier for you. :) Thanks
Shawn can I use a 3/16 router bit for my ludwig 3plys? It seems to do a nicer job cutting into and ending nicely at the 3rd maple ply on the bearing edge. How will it affect the sound? Or should I just use 1/8" roundover?
Thanks man! I used an 1/8" round over. These had a very slight round over from the factory. 1/4-3/8 would be more todays baseball bat style edge. Thanks for watching!
Yes, late 60's-70's anyways. I believe they hand sanded the outside round over, it's very slight, I decided to go with a more precise way by using an 1/8 bit in my router table. Thanks for watching!
