Recovering the bass drum & finishing the project 

The bass drum was a little different.  The wrap comes in two parts - one small part and one larger sheet.  The smaller piece has to be fitted first, to the bottom of the bass drum shell.  This was the only time that I had to tape any of the covering on to the drum itself.

 On the three toms, the wrap is overlapped and taped to itself.  Again, I just took my time, made a little mark on the bearing edge of the bass drum where I wanted the edge to be, making sure that it the wrap was perfectly centred on the shell, and stuck one side down, then turned the drum round, pulled the wrap tight and stuck the other side down.  Now I had to fit the larger piece.  I craved the indulgence of my wife again and had her help me get the wrap into position,  then I stuck it into place.  Perfect.

Now it was just a question of boring holes through the wrap and fitting the spurs, lugs, airhole and badge.  This was really easy, as I could work from the inside of the drum.  It took a little while, but I was being extremely careful.  I got everything screwed back into place.  One thing to note - don't screw the fittings on really tightly, as it can cause the wrap to bubble.  Screw them just tight enough to be...well...tight enough.

The only thing left to do now was to fit the hoops and heads.    I'd ordered new hoops, but, typically, they hadn't arrived in time to be fitted before tonight's gig, so I'll be using a Crazy Yellow kit, with Red Sequoia Lacquer bass drum hoops!  The hoops should arrive on Monday, and that's the kit completely finished.

All in all it took a couple of days, and none of it was hard work.  I've taken a few pics, and I'll post them as soon as the film's developed.

Stephen Mulholland

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