Building projects have slowed down some. Finished the Kent with the blue/green stain and took it to New Orleans as a house gift for Nancy and Ben. Nancy has this cool front room with all kinds of Art and lots of percussion instruments. I always felt a snare drum would look good in there. Snares are central to the Nola sound. I'm honored to have one in that town, although it should get played. I resisted putting re-rings on this shell as it was very round to begin with and I thought it should sound open and brash with lots of overtones. I kept the bearing edges rounded like the original, but turned it into an 8 lug drum. I had some newer generic lugs kicking around and added my usual leather gaskets. Included with the drum was a pair or hickory sticks I'd made awhile back. Like an idiot, I didn't take a picture of the finished product!
Some other projects are French polishing the teak stave shell(ongoing). Complete clean up of an 90's Yamaha sd 296 which is like a Supraphonic with a parallel type snare arrangement, very heavy steel shell, ten lugs and heavy triple flange hoops. Haven't driven it yet, we'll see. Out in the barn I'm working on a 13 inch Kent tom shell that was poorly glued up to begin with. I've worked some glue into the gaps and trued up the shell on the table saw and then the sanding board. I stripped off the wrap and who knows how I'll finish the nice maple.
My friend Mike Labelle posted a picture of his new "old" set of tubs with a 26 inch bass drum and toms made from old marching snare drums. Very cool and inspiring. My old 26 inch maple George Stone bass drum needs a good sanding, some finish, hardware, heads and some spurs. Things to look forward to.
As I improve as a player, I find I can play a more relaxed style that begs for a big, resonant set of drums in a reverby room. Recently I've seen some You Tube clips of Jay Bellerose who epitomises this style, also Dylan's drummer, George Recelli comes to mind. Old fashion sound with todays sensibilities.
