REPAIR CHALLENGE: BLUE-SPARKLE SNARE

This is a blue-sparkle 5-1/2x14" snare made by Stewart, a cheap Japanese import brand of drums that were actually manufactured by Pearl before that company began marketing better quality products under the Pearl name.  Although they are old, dating back to the 60s and 70s, Stewart drums are not considered all that valuable as far as "vintage" goes.  Stewart was sort of like the CB700 of its day, so Stewart pieces found on eBay are usually inexpensive and don't tend to attract many bidders.

One thing that many drummers agree on, however, is that Stewart drums are excellent "vintage" drums on which one can practice restorations, before one goes tearing apart a valuable American drum such as an antique Ludwig or Slingerland.  If you mess up a Stewart drum, you can probably find another one for about twenty bucks.  If you succeed in bringing it back to life, you might find you have acquired a pretty decent sounding snare for very little money, and also added considerably to your confidence in your ability to repair drums.

As I embarked on this challenge, I definitely had some major obstacles to overcome.  All I started with was the shell, the rims and the lugs.  That meant I needed all of the following to successfully pull off this repair job: snares, strainer and butt, muffler, heads, twelve tension rods and a lot of luck.  If I could round up all of these items, I just might be able to get this Stewart back in working order.

The original snare strainer (or throw) broke and was discarded years ago, which was the reason I stopped using this drum in the 1990s.  Back then I had no idea where to find replacement drum parts and really wasn't interested in spending the time, effort and money necessary to save this old drum.  Music stores in my area didn't carry such merchandise and I was unwilling to look into how I might go about ordering the various parts I needed.  It wasn't worth the hassle.  So I simply gave up, gutted the drum for parts and stored it away.

When my interest in fixing up drums returned many years later, I found I still had this old shell, the rims and the lugs.  I decided to give this project a real try, and was determined to have my old blue-sparkle snare back in condition.  Now that music stores were stocking replacement parts and such, I thought this challenge might be "do-able," and if I messed up, so what?  It's just a Stewart!

I went to the music store and purchased all the stuff I needed except for the muffler, which I found amongst my vast collection of "drum junk."  Every seasoned drummer has an old box containing spare lugs, odd tension rods in varying lengths, numerous wing nuts, washers and drum keys, and a back-up supply of cymbal felt, don't they?  Maybe not, but I do.  I have all kinds of spare parts, broken stands and miscellaneous junk that I hang on to "just in case."

Anyway, to make a short story long I spent way too much money buying a Pearl snare strainer and butt, a good set of quality snare wires, top and bottom heads and all the tension rods I needed to complete the job.  In other words, the replacement parts cost about four times what the drum was worth, but I was excited and ready to proceed, no matter what the cost.  It was a matter of principle now.

Using a little "Gorilla Glue" I repaired the felt on the interior muffler and fitted it back into the shell.  So far so good.  I had to drill additional holes in the drum (not something you ever want to do to a real vintage drum) to accommodate the new strainer and butt, but remarkably I accomplished this quite easily.  If I was a fanatical restoration expert, I probably could have searched the internet for an authentic Stewart strainer to fit the existing holes in this snare, but because I am not, I went with what the music store had on hand - a nice Pearl job.  It fit the new holes I made and was functional, so I was happy.  That's all I wanted to accomplish.

On went the top batter head, a Remo "Ambassador" coated head.  Next I began tightening down the snare-side head, a thin, Remo "Diplomat" head.  I was going to go with a Remo "Emissary" or "Envoy," but unfortunately they don't have any drumheads named after these type government officials.  They don't have a Remo "Minister of Propaganda" either.  That would be cool.

As I was tightening the tension rods on the bottom rim, I finally hit a snag: one of the swivel nuts cracked and busted.  Darn those swivel nuts!  This meant I had to take out all of the bottom rim tension rods to remove the head to get to the screws holding the broken lug on.  I had to get to the interior of the lug to remove and replace the swivel nut.  I hate when that happens.

This is where those old spare drum parts I mentioned earlier really come in handy.  I just happen to have an old rusted Ludwig Supraphonic snare shell lying around that is totally useless - or is it?  I "stole" a swivel nut out of one of the lugs on this shell and used it to repair my Stewart.  Now that was quick thinking!

The result of all this effort (and money) is I now have a fully operational Stewart blue-sparkle snare drum.  It looks great, it sounds pretty good and I had a fun time engaging in this restoration project.  That doesn't mean I'm ready to go into the vintage drum business, but I definitely proved that even a hopeless-looking piece like this one can be salvaged if I'm willing to accept the challenge.  Or something like that.