Drum Wraps? Anyone had a go at doing one?

[jimcroisdale]

HI all,

Just wondered if anyone has had a go at doing a drum wrap?

I'm picking up an old APK in a few days. While it is in good condition I thought it might be an ideal set of shells to have a go at doing a wrap.

I work in the sign trade and use coloured and digital vinyls all the time. I was thinking that this might be suitable for use on a drum shell? I could print any design on digital vinyl and apply that - surely this is the way that 'graphic' wraps are done? The vinyl is only 65microns thick, and with the application of a gloss laminate is very durable and attractive.

Any tips or tales would be appreciated - I've started to get a few enquiries about it and would like to know If I am thinking along the right lines before I destroy my (or anyone else's) kit!

Cheers,

Jim

[chrisso]

I wouldn't glue it to the shell.

[jimcroisdale]

Well, the vinyl (be it coloured or printed) has a self-adhesive backing.

However, the vinyl can be easily removed with a little heat from a hair dryer or heat gun, and leaves no residue.

Are wraps not normally glued on? How are they fixed in place?

Jim

[joeq]

I once met a guy who took the factory wrap off his shells and replaced them with coffin lining. It was a silvery grey satiny wallpaper type stuff with raised felt fleur-de-lis pattern. Very goth, as you might expect.

I would have imagined all drum wrap eventually has to be glued on.

Maybe crisso means 'see how it looks first' ?

[bradb]

i did a whole set back in 2000.

it was not super easy, and you have to be careful, but I won in the end.

precisiondrum.com is the company I used.

there's some 3M adhesive you buy and coat both the wrap and the drum, let 'em dry and you get 1 chance to make it right.

[Nutmeg II.]

A not completle glued warp kann kill the sustain.
A good glued warp does not kill the sustain, but lowers the shell pitch a little.

[chrisso]

Originally Posted by Nutmeg II.

A not completle glued warp kann kill the sustain.

How so?
I'm actually talking about just taping the seam.
That way you can easily remove the wrap if you change your mind.
Complete gluing is a one way road and hard to do.
Tape on the seam and the re-attaching of hardware holds the new wrap in place just fine, and the shell beneath can breath just like an unwrapped shell.

[Nutmeg II.]

Originally Posted by chrisso

How so?
I'm actually talking about just taping the seam.
That way you can easily remove the wrap if you change your mind.
Complete gluing is a one way road and hard to do.
Tape on the seam and the re-attaching of hardware holds the new wrap in place just fine, and the shell beneath can breath just like an unwrapped shell.

When not glued completly to the shell, than it will not vibrate with, but against the shell and suck out the energie.
When completely glued, it will become a part of the shell. Adding weight and therevore lowers the pitch.

[HeavyG]

Agreed...GMS has long done custom finishes for drummers that were associated with companies that were challenged in this area (a little secret...many of the Big Three's endorsers sent their drums to GMS for the finishing). GMS offers a wrap simply because it is hard to do some custom finishes by hand...you can pretty much do ANYTHING in a wrap. Anything that you can print can be adhered to the shell...the trick, as Nutmeg points out, it doing it correctly. Do it right...and it will sound as good as it did (albeit with a bit of fundamental pitch change, since the shell will now be "thicker").

Do your homework...you should be fine.

[jimcroisdale]

Hmmm.

I think signmaking vinyls may be the ideal material to use then!

It's thin and light so it won't change the pitch of the drum, and it can be removed easily with a bit of heat without damaging the original finish in any way.

I'm going for it! Any ideas on an interesting design?

Cheers,

Jim

[mrmike186]

I have done my old kit twice over the years. The first time my father got some really strong glue that had to be mixed together and then you had a certain amount of time to work the materials. The glue was super strong and dried super hard.

When I tried to remove it 20 years later it was a huge pain in the butt. I had to chip some of it off and power sand the rest. Precision Drum co. recommended contact cement for the new wrap and it was much easier to work with and looked very nice but did not sound as good as the first method. Contact cement is almost like rubber cement, maybe a bit stronger but I think it may be muting the shell a bit.

[Space Station]

What happened, Im thinking of doing my trusty old Pearl BLX..changing the colour..im bored of black..thinking orange sparkle. I could spray it since I have all the equipment and have done sparkle on guitars..but the wrap appeals somewhat..

[jimcroisdale]

Wow! This old thread!

Well, I did do the wrap in the end!

My mate had a small Ludwig kit in dark red woodstain finish and he wanted it doing in green glitter.

He said he had ordered the material (said it was VERY hard to get) from a supplier in the USA (we are in the UK)

When it arrived, I could see immediately that it was just regular sign-making glitter vinyl, available all over the UK from a variety of suppliers!

Anyhoo, we decided to give it a go. He totally removed everything from all the shells and we took them to my work, where we could get the shells on our big glass table and use the good knives and long rulers etc.

First, we roughly cut the pieces to size and dry-wrapped them onto the shells to check. We left about a 1in overlap on each, with a view to placing the seam where it would be least visible. Then we laid the vinyl out flat on the table and removed the backing. Vinyl is easier to fit when dampened with a little soapy water, so we sprayed some on and then kinda threw it at the shell. 'Cos it was wet it didn't stick at all really so it was easy to get onto position. then it was just a case of squeegeeing the water out and trying to keep everything in place. Once dry, we trimmed the bearing edges and left the shells in a warm room for a couple of days before re-assembling the kit.

It did look awesome, BUT the finish is not massively durable. Any dings or scraped did result in damage to the vinyl, although my mate is a bit picky - I thought the glitter finish didn't show the damage too badly. Anyway, he gigged the kit for a few months (and he gigs 5 times a week) and it still looked ok by the end of it.

Next time I saw him, he'd removed it all and the kit looked good as new - so defo problems getting it off - just a hair dryer, and some isopropyl alcohol to wipe off any glue residue left behind.

My advice? Do your snare drum first to get the feel for it, and see if you like it!

Cheers,

Jim

[Space Station]

Cool...great info..yeh that sparkle vinyl is all over ebay..I have an old steel 6 1/2 inch Pearl free floater, I may try it on that for fun!

[jimcroisdale]

Yeah, it's all pretty much the same stuff.

If you're doing a snare, don't overdo it with the water - just a couple of drops of washing up liquid in a spray bottle, and just give the vinyl a light dusting.

Should be manageable, as the piece of vinyl will be quite small!