Refinishing a Drum Set

This was my husband's project last winter. He grew up always playing the drums and had a set on and off. This is his current set. He decided that he didn't like the wraps that were on this set. He spent quite a bit of time looking up new wraps to buy to replace on his shells, but everything he found that he actually liked was quite pricey. He started taking off the wraps and noticed that his shells had a really nice grain pattern and decided instead of new wraps he was going to stain them and add many coats of a high floss lacquer.

He started out with just one to see how it would turn out and if he found the color of stain he liked and if the grain would look as awesome as he envisioned it would. It did. You can see up in the collage the center picture on the right is his first finished shell next to one of the ones ones with this burgandy wrap on it.

Of course all the hardware is still dated, but it works with the wood. I think the updated look actually makes them have more of a classic look. He's past that "flashy" drum set stage of his life and this is a very nice looking set.

There was still an investment in a high glass lacquer (I think he said he did 6 coats or so on them to get the level of glass he wanted) and stain, and the time was a considerable investment, but he now has a set he refinished and can be proud of.