Drum Detailing

[PEACEdrummer]

So my band is picking up. Were planning some tours and we have a show with Michale Graves in April. SO in order to look more proffesional I decided to give my drum a full detail. So I got all my drums and stripped them down to no hardware. The drums were just a bare shell. I put all the pieces in my bathtub with about 4 inces of water and a lil soap. I cleaned the shells with a wet wash rag, dried them, then waxed them. The end result was great they look good as new and make me feel really good about the drum set. Id reccomend anyone to do this once or twoce a year.

[kay-gee]

Yeah I generally do it about once a year. Trouble is, I dont remove te lugs from the shells. The square badge Gretsch from the 80's used these strange sized self tapping screws to affix the lugs. They corrode and should one twist off during removal or get lost, I'd be up a rope! However, I shine the lugs as carefully as I can remaining on the shells. Liquid polish and toothbrush work fine. As for shells they are natural maple. I just use Martin guitar porlftish or regular furniture oil. You are correct. It does invigorate your enthusiasm for the set when they shine like new.

all the best...

[totti]

wOW...
Thanks for da advice PEACE....

Maybe I'll try it in forthcoming months....

[holycow77]

You put your hardware in water?
Sounds like a nice recipe for rust to me.

[backtodrum]

I detail mine fairly often too, especially before a show. It is almost as theropudic as playing them for me...

[PEACEdrummer]

If you dry everything really welll you wont get rust. My hardware is coated in black to so thats extra protection.

[totti]

My hardware is coated in black to so thats extra protection.

Owh...So the colour of kit is take a part here ???
Mine is Midnight Blue....
Will it be rust ??

[pastor_bob]

You don't have to use water when detailing, if you don't want to take a chance on rust. You could wipe down all the wood surfaces with a dry cloth, and then use a wax/polish on all the hardware (somebody please say something about the coated hardware, because I have no experience with that). Make sure that you get a detailing brush to get the wax out of the difficult spots, once it has dried to a haze. I wouldn't use a regular wax on the lacquer finishes, I'd use something like what DrumBum has on their site http://store.drumbum.com/skuA-13.html If you have a wrap finish, as has already been noted on other threads, you can wipe the finish down with a little windex, and it will be good to go.

PD, maybe you could give us a little explanation for your choice of using water to clean your drum shells.

[Shinka]

I would say that as far as drums go, water/moisture would be the anti-christ.

There is no harm in taking hardware off of the shells as I would always do that when I first got a kit. I would pack all the lugs with cotton balls to avoid any unwanted vibrations and then placed them back on the shells. I no longer do this with new top of the line drums since hardware has come a long way over the years.

For the most part I would side with Pastor Bob & just wipe the shells with a soft microfiber cloth.

Even just our sweat from playing can harm the shell's finish as well as the chrome's finish so wiping the drums down is best as soon as you can.

You can use a gentle car wax or polish on the hardware (safe for painted chrome too) as long as the wax or polish doesn't have any cleaning agents in it. Windex is fine but is doesn't offer any protection like a wax would.

Unfinished plies (the inside of most drums) should not be sprayed with any wax or cleaner as this will clog the pores of the wood that really need to constantly breathe.

Remember that if for some reason the chrome plating of the hardware wasn't applied very good, even the littliest of water/moisture will start to pit the chrome in a short time.

IMO: Use the water to hydrate the drummer!

[Shinka]

Oh one more thing:

Best of luck with the tour!