Pearl 8" Brass Free Floating Snare Restoration

[Kevaruka]

Well, I have finally got round to doing this. Had the snare 24 years now & never cleaned it once!!!!! Decided it was time for an overhaul. Shell itself was in a bad way, Heavily marked & stained/pitted. Both the Masterclass hoops were scrap, The snare wires were knackered & the bottom cradle had corroded.
New hoops ordered along with heads. Original Pearl Free Floating snare wires ordered. Cradle bead blasted, All new tension rods with the black plastic inserts. Shell rubbed down with wet & dry then polished.

Declared chuffed

Before -




Stripped -




Finished -

[Pearl MCX Man]

Wow, great job Kev you would'nt think it is the same snare. You got all pitting off the brass shell. Looks like new. Congrats man

[slinky]

nice work! nice snare! Your before pic looks wayyy better than my 6 1/2x14 pearl brass non ff I bought back in 92. I must have 500 hrs logged on that one.

Bought a used 6 1/2x14 ff not too long ago. One of the Taiwan ones but it sounds good. The live but warm sound you'd expect it to have.

So the wet/dry is the way to go to get the stains out? My 92 looks like it's been through a forest fire. I'd like to get it up and running again but in a way I've kind of retired it. Won't part with it though, we've been through a lot together

[Spiderjig]

Very nice snare and she's a beauty all cleaned up.

[js218]

Excellent job, looks brand new. ..


Jim

[Kevaruka]

So the wet/dry is the way to go to get the stains out?

Yes, I started with 1200 grit then slowly worked up to 2000 grit. Finished by using some G4 paste on a car polisher. Really filthy job but worth it

[slinglander]

Wow! All done by hand, no machines? I have to try that. Thanks for the info, Kevaruka.

[Texdrumr]

Very nice. Great work and thanks for posting it up here.

Tex

[Kevaruka]

Most welcome

[SpazApproved]

holy crap what a revival!

That finished snare looks great! She must of just been the prom queen back when you bought her! Nice work!

[Kevaruka]

This is quite honestly the loudest snare I have ever had the pleasure of playing

[Bish]

"My eyes!!"

Fantastic resto. Well done!!

[Kevaruka]

Thank you

[markdrum]

I know that I'm late to the party but have you ever tried simichrome? I just did an old Sensitone brass snare and it came out great! It wasn't as tarnished as yours was but the clean up was relatively painless. Fantastic job by the way! I've done a couple of those 1st gen FF brass shells and it's not a task for the faint of heart8^).

[Kevaruka]

I know that I'm late to the party but have you ever tried simichrome? I just did an old Sensitone brass snare and it came out great! It wasn't as tarnished as yours was but the clean up was relatively painless. Fantastic job by the way! I've done a couple of those 1st gen FF brass shells and it's not a task for the faint of heart8^).

Never heard of it I'm afraid. I used to be in the Car Restoration business so use all of the same processes & products. It is though, Very labour intensive but worth it.
What I haven't shown though is the shell does have a couple of dings in it from when I threw it off stage once.............. These, I have hidden round the back of the snare. I am thinking of trying somehow to get them out but the shell will always look marked. Therefore, I "May" have the shell sprayed Satin Black then have our band logo applied over the ding to "Mask" it.

[FlyByNight]

Looks great!

[markdrum]

Never heard of it I'm afraid. I used to be in the Car Restoration business so use all of the same processes & products. It is though, Very labour intensive but worth it.
What I haven't shown though is the shell does have a couple of dings in it from when I threw it off stage once.............. These, I have hidden round the back of the snare. I am thinking of trying somehow to get them out but the shell will always look marked. Therefore, I "May" have the shell sprayed Satin Black then have our band logo applied over the ding to "Mask" it.

There's an old trick where you make a bed out of sand or potting soil, anything that will mold to the shape of the shell.

Put a garbage bag liner over the potting soil or whatever and gently press a good part of the shell into the surface to make a good mold to work with.

Place the shell with the dings into the new "mold" and gently hammer out the dings with a rubber mallet like those used in car body shops. Work from the outside of the ding towards the center. Be patient, which you obviously already are.

Once the dings are out, polish the areas where they were and they should be either gone or greatly diminished.

I had a girlfriend who was a high school band teacher. It was amazing what those students could do to a metal instrument!

[Kevaruka]

There's an old trick where you make a bed out of sand or potting soil, anything that will mold to the shape of the shell.

Put a garbage bag liner over the potting soil or whatever and gently press a good part of the shell into the surface to make a good mold to work with.

Place the shell with the dings into the new "mold" and gently hammer out the dings with a rubber mallet like those used in car body shops. Work from the outside of the ding towards the center. Be patient, which you obviously already are.

Once the dings are out, polish the areas where they were and they should be either gone or greatly diminished.

I had a girlfriend who was a high school band teacher. It was amazing what those students could do to a metal instrument!

Great advice. Must have a play at some point

In the mean time, this is how it now looks


Untitled by Kevin Frost, on Flickr

Untitled by Kevin Frost, on Flickr