The chrome hardware was looking pretty rough on this one, but the red sparkle wrap was awesome, almost an "electric" red. The drum also had an interesting rattle because obviously something had come loose and was bouncing around on the inside.
And here is the answer. The felt pads have come off of the Tone Control Assembly. This is an easy fix with a little contact cement.
Here is the throw side, very much in need of a sound polishing, but with all the parts intact (except for the bottom tension rods).
And here is a look at the dirty old butt and the TC knob. Again, all the parts are there, they have just badly deteriorated because someone probably left this drum in a storage shed out in their backyard or some other horrific environment very unfriendly to chrome hardware. Now let's see what happens when the misplacedmtnman manipulates his magic.
The first thing I did was completely disassemble the drum. Then I polished the shell. Then I repaired and re-installed the Tone Control Assembly:
Next I clean and re-install the Strainer Assembly:
Then I scrubbed and polished the dirty old butt:
Then, of course, I polished the lugs and in this extreme case, replaced the rims and tension rods which were beyond help. New heads and wires were put on and this simple project is complete. The drum now looks and performs like brand new.
This next Stewart snare drum was more of a challenge. As you can see here, what I started out with was basically a shell with one rusty rim and a worn-out head. Not much to go on.
These three holes are where the Strainer Assembly should go. This drum did not have a Tone Control Assembly, nor any holes where one could be mounted, but it did have two screws covering up these holes where the Butt Plate should go:
To make a long story short, here is what the drum looks like after I have tracked down all the necessary parts and brought the whole project back together again:
It now has a proper Strainer Assembly that fits the existing holes. New top and bottom rims and heads have also been added. And let's not forget the butt:
Here is a view from the underside which shows that despite missing most of its parts, this snare drum was still in excellent condition as far as the wood shell was concerned. This silver model even has "re-rings"* whereas the red sparkle above did not.
Now I have two wonderful snare drums with vibrant, sparkly wraps rescued and returned to pristine, playable condition! Can I get a woo-hoo!?
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*Short for "reinforcement rings," these are those two bands of wood trim on the inside that help keep the thin shell in round and, as some claim, make the drum sound better.
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