Sealing shell interiors..??

pearlygates

Gold Member
Hey all, I have been toying with Idea of sealing the interior of my maple shell snare drum.
I should mention that it is a 9ply Gretsch Catalina. Don't get me wrong..I like this drum it has a nice warm fat tone. I am wondering if sealing the shell interior wil brighten up the attack and timbre of the drum.. I have heard of guys doing this. How would I go about it and does it really make a noticeable difference? Thanks.
 
What and how you seal the interior of the shell with....lets face it.....it's gonna be paint. Will it affect the sound of the drum, to the point that "you can hear the difference?", probably not. Simply, budget line drums get naked interiors because finished interiors cost more. I shot my Rogers interiors with at least 4 coats of minwax polycrylic. (4 coats each, bass and floor tom, and 10 coats each, into the rack toms.) With 30 min. dry time between coats. See May 30/08 post here: http://harryconway.typepad.com/ You'd have to spend some "large" to get a factory to do that for you.
 
Noticeable, probably not. I just minwaxed mine and hand waxed on top of that. The grain shows through, they look great and have some protection.
 
Well for any of you information, I did tung oil treatment to my stock Swingstar snare (phil. mahogany) and I notice a difference, to my ear the tone was crisper, brighter & more resonant. Since the satisfying result, I then tung oiled my kit drum shell. I did lay 3 coat with 24 hours drying time between each coat and I let the last coat dry for at least 48 hrs before reinstalling all hardware & heads. FYI, I did the treatment over the bearing too after sanding small imperfections.

Before
tung_treatment.jpg


After first coat and letting it dry
tung_treatment2.jpg


After all this I'm glad I've done it, I'm more happy with the kit sound now and my shell are protected against humidity and unusual ply separation.
 
I've experimented with this on several snare's that I have built using tung oil, and poly. Got to say there really isn't that much of a difference to my ears. I have sanded the interiors really smooth and the results were similiar.

But like you know everyone's ears are different. Try it and be the judge yourself.
 
If nothing else it will protect your shells, you wont hurt them and you may hear a difference. Sounds to me like you really cant go wrong.
 
Well for any of you information, I did tung oil treatment to my stock Swingstar snare (phil. mahogany) and I notice a difference, to my ear the tone was crisper, brighter & more resonant. Since the satisfying result, I then tung oiled my kit drum shell. I did lay 3 coat with 24 hours drying time between each coat and I let the last coat dry for at least 48 hrs before reinstalling all hardware & heads. FYI, I did the treatment over the bearing too after sanding small imperfections.

Before
tung_treatment.jpg


After first coat and letting it dry
tung_treatment2.jpg


After all this I'm glad I've done it, I'm more happy with the kit sound now and my shell are protected against humidity and unusual ply separation.

I have now been inspired to do the same to my Imperialstar. Thank you!
 
Well I have the drum torn down to bare shell..I'm gonna try the tung oil. I let you know what I think. Thanks guys!
 
the most important question i have is, what kind of beer is that ?
 
I have now been inspired to do the same to my Imperialstar. Thank you!

Well I have the drum torn down to bare shell..I'm gonna try the tung oil. I let you know what I think. Thanks guys!

I invite you to do what I did. Try first with the wood stock snare snare (unfortunately I think the new Imperialstar come with steel snare).

the most important question i have is, what kind of beer is that ?


4% Genuine Black Label or Black Light
 
I invite you to do what I did. Try first with the wood stock snare snare (unfortunately I think the new Imperialstar come with steel snare).





4% Genuine Black Label or Black Light

My set came with a wood snare although it was advertised as steel. No worries, I plan to buy a metalworks snare next year.
 
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