How to modify Pearl Marching tenors - cut down

[@JosephCenter]

Excellent demonstration! Thank you!

[@tyde2theworld]

Where would you suggest the holes on a 6 and 8 inch spock be for the mounting brackets on a set of sextets?

[@chrisroode]

Hey, awesome video! I'm prepping to modify some older marching tenors in the same way. I was just wondering, if you were to peel off that pearl wrap off the drum, what type of wood finish would be left underneath. Would glue be a problem? Thinking about converting them to a wood stain finish instead.

[@CalderwoodPercussion]

That's totally doable, but I would not be optimistic about the quality of the wood you'll find under the wrap. Typically, the big manufacturers use "paint grade" wood for the exterior plies on drums that will be wrapped in an effort to save money. Under the wrap there will likely be some pretty rough looking wood and a gnarly seam, although sometimes you do get lucky and find something nicer (especially on old drums). Definitely use a heat gun to take the wrap off, regardless of if it's glued on all the way around or just taped at the seams, otherwise you will definitely tear out some of the outside ply. If the wood doesn't look great, a lot of times using a wood dye will be enough to sort of spruce it up, and you can still use a natural finish and still see the wood grain, especially if you dye with a darker color. If you're gonna do that, after you're done sanding, but before you start with the dye, wipe the shell down with mineral spirits and look to see if any spots look blotchy. If so, there may still be glue on the surface of the wood (from the manufacturing process), and you'll need to sand that more, or the dye won't soak into the wood there. Just be careful when sanding so you don't accidentally go through the outside ply. I hope that helps! It's really not a difficult project, and if you get lucky on the wood under the wrap, you may wind up with really beautiful drums! Anyway, worse case scenario, you just end up re-wrapping, and that could be cool too. Also, in the event you do re-wrap, your best bet is to get your wrap from Precision Drum Company: precisiondrum.com/

[@hunteralexander9791]

If I am looking for a 6 inch spock and cannot find one, would you recommend the 6 inch concert Tom thing as a viable alternative?

[@CalderwoodPercussion]

Yeah, totally. I've seen a small bongo used pretty effectively before as well.

[@andwhatshouldbe]

Hi! Love your work. I'm cutting down my old set of Premier power toms to fast tom sizes and can't reuse the old lugs, so I'm having to patch their holes. What bit did you use to extract a circular bit of the shell to plug the old lug holes? Thanks!

[@CalderwoodPercussion]

Thanks! The bit is just called a plug cutter. I have a set of fairly cheap ones from Grizzly, I think, but you can get them on Amazon or any woodworking supply place. If you don't mind spending a little bit more money, The self-centering plug cutters that Rockler sells are really nice; I've been thinking about picking up a set of those to replace the ones I have.

[@DanielMakesCadences]

Where do you get your drumline music?

[@Prof.CheeseDog]

I recognize that the soundfont is the "rumble pack," which is sampled from the Blue Devils drumline. He may have made it himself

[@CalderwoodPercussion]

It’s my college drum line. James Madison University from 1999 or maybe 2000.

[@kewayneduncan7837]

What the point of making the drums small

[@CalderwoodPercussion]

Shallower shells make the drums slightly more articulate with a little less body and resonance, but the bigger issue was that they were too large and too heavy for the young student playing them.

[@Abby-wj5je]

why do you cut the top off instead of the bottom, seems like it would be easier to do the bottom because you wouldn't have to do the bearing edge or make new holes for the lugs and mounts

[@CalderwoodPercussion]

In retrospect, that probably would have been easier. I started the project the same as I would cut down any other drum, but the measurements and hole placements on this made it much more complicated than usual.

[@apfrye]

Calderwood Percussion probably so you wouldn't have to reproduce the angle cut on the bottom... now if you have a technique for THAT, that would be amazing to see.

[@apfrye]

for example if you needed to replace a shell using a stock Keller shell

[@sixty9fordkiller]

that is a lot of work (and you do really nice work, btw) what did this cost your customer?