THE RED AGATE PEARL* GRACYS

Here is my latest and last drum kit project: The Red Agate Pearl Gracys.  By the way, that's pronounced AG-it, not uh-GATE.  Just in case you were wondering.  I looked it up just to be sure.  And yes, I did say that this would be my LAST drum project, meaning this is the FINAL time I will be purchasing drums off of Ebay and restoring them to their former glory.  I know I have said this before but this time I ABSOLUTELY mean it!  This is it!  There will be no more!

This is not because I am tired of doing this, or angry at the world, or out of time, money and energy or whatever.  No, I simply MUST stop this ridiculous habit because my 10'x10' storage space has been filled to capacity and I definitely cannot fit any more drum stuff in there no matter how hard I try.  See?  Look at this:

So, yeah, there where it says, "THIS IS THE EDGE" is where the roll-down door comes to.  So I'm done.  The picture doesn't really convey the severity of the situation, but there's about fifteen to eighteen drumsets, maybe 80 snare drums and an odd assortment of random toms, pieces of hardware and a few cymbals.  The explanation for the inaccuracy of my knowledge of the inventory is because I have honestly - and literally - lost track of how much stuff I own, which makes it very fun to open up this unit and discover....."Oh, wow!  I forgot about that kit / snare / tom / whatever!"

But all that ASS-ide, here is how the Red Agate Pearl Gracys turned out:

I mean.....WOW.....overlooking the fact that these photos were obviously taken in an abandoned, spooky graveyard, this is a beautiful kit.  This is a beautiful, beautiful kit.

And that's all I have to say.  I could go on and on about how difficult it was to track down the proper snare throw and muffler mechanisms (which were missing and subtly not featured in any of the auction photos or item descriptions), or how some of the bass drum tension rods and claws did not match, or how some of the lugs had swivel nuts with the wrong threading.....and stuff like that.  But all you want to do is look at the pretty pictures, so there you are.  All of these minor but very frustrating problems were overcome and rectified.  Project completed.

So what did we learn here?  Always restore missing parts with the proper replacements, not convenient substitutes and most importantly, do NOT set up your drum set in the damn dirt!  Geez!  The level of disrespect and disregard for this precious musical instrument that I come across in this business never ceases to amaze me.

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*Editor's Note: I am aware that sometimes this wrap is called "Red Onyx" or "Red Onyx Pearl," however this particular nomenclature was used by Rogers, whereas in the Star Drums Catalog it was listed as "Red Agate Pearl" (a fact I could prove with a photo if I could frickin' find it on the internet which at the moment I cannot, so just take my word for it).  Anyway, if you wanted to re-wrap your drums with this finish, websites like Jammin' Sam call this "Red Onyx Pearl," not "Red Agate Pearl."  I just like to call it the latter because I think it has a more "vintage MIJ vibe."