THE RETURN OF THE BLACK PEARL

No, this is not another Pirates of the Caribbean movie starring Johnny Depp.  This is the story of my restoration of a set of Pearl drums that I bought from my ex-stepson (who I still consider and call "my other son").  He needed some quick cash to get out of a tight spot, so I gave it to him and took this kit as collateral.  I keep hoping one day he will want it back.

While I was busy working on other projects, I lent this kit to a guy at church who wanted to learn how to play the drums.  Since I wasn't using it and needed the room, I let him borrow it for a while and pretty much forgot about it.


When I got the kit back months later, I realized just how dirty and deteriorated this assemblage was.  The plastic wrap was filthy and covered with a smudgy film, and every inch of chrome hardware was splotchy with oxidation.  It was definitely time for a complete and thorough cleaning.  These drums were in desperate need of some serious love and attention.  I decided it was worth my time and effort to salvage this used-and-abused kit, get it back to its proper condition and make it worth playing again.  This was a decent set of Pearls, not some throwaway junk set.

This does not mean a few squirts of Windex on the chrome and a light dusting of the wood.  This means a total breakdown of every single component.  This involves taking the entire kit completely apart, down to the bare individual parts.  Every rim, lug and mount is unscrewed from the shells, and every cymbal stand is completely disassembled down to the various pipe sections, the thumb screws and the wing nuts.  The process takes several days, a whole bottle of Brasso and loads of elbow grease.  It is not a job you want to take on yourself unless you have lots of patience and determination.....or just lack female companionship and have nothing better to do.

Besides the aesthetic problems, the most obvious issue with this drum set was the missing bottom heads on the two rack toms.  Not only are the heads gone but the rims and lugs as well!  This is a problem not-so-easily overcome by simply slapping on some new skins.  This meant I had to do some extensive on-line research to track down the matching replacement parts and the means by which I could acquire them.

Believe it or not I went to EBAY (big surprise there) and found someone to sell me what I needed at a price that was rather ridiculous and unacceptable to anyone with sense.  I bought them anyway, and spent the next several days cleaning, polishing and catching a buzz with my bottle of Brasso while I waited for the parts to arrive along with a complete set of new heads for each drum, top and bottom.  I also ordered a black Pearl logo head for the kick.

After all my cleaning and restoring was done, this is how The Black Pearl looks now:

Go ahead.  Click on that photo and get a closer view.  This kit looks absolutely beautiful, and sounds great too.

The kit now has all new Remo Pinstripe heads:

And all the chrome is shiny and looks great:

Another Percussion Restoration Project now completed!