How to rebuild a Slingerland snare drum Part One

First of all, don't attempt a project like this unless you're a patient man (or woman). You're going to be frustrated if you hurry this type of work. Why? There's going to be hard to find parts, or parts that are more expensive than you can justify at times. Especially times like these. Let's face it, we might say "I'll get a good price for this when it's finished". But we all know that after the amount of work and money that going to be put into something like this....well, we won't want to part with it.
Step one.
Okay, we got ours hands on a nice old shell. In this case it's a Slingerland 1960s red sparkle, wood snare. We know this because the badge is still intact. Serial no. 878## to be exact. And, the inside of the shell is marked "Jan 66". The shell is still nice and "round". The finish is still in nice shape too, so I'm not going to re wrap it.
The "stick saver" hoops worried me at first, but I managed to clean them up nicely with NEVR DULL, my favorite non-toxic cleaner. There's still some pitting, but not so much that we can't keep these original parts too.
That's the good news.
The bad? All the lugs are pitted and oxidised beyond repair. The strainer is broken and missing pieces, and the butt plate is also pretty much junk.
Fortunately, there are vendors online with nice reproduction lugs at a reasonable price.
I'm still choking a little at the cost of a replacement strainer. Keep in mind we want the exact make and type to complete this.
Next installment, Putting it all back together with some nice heads!

Baptist Church Praise Band embarks on Christmas CD Release

The praise band at Damariscotta Baptist Church in Damariscotta, Maine is working on a Christmas CD project to benefit the "Steeple Fund". As many in the area know, the DBC steeple tower, bell, and clock were taken down last fast for repairs and rebuild of the steeple. The Damariscotta church is visible from route one and is an important landmark to the area. Many Community minded folks and organizations have contributed funds and time to raise money and we are nearly half way in our capital drive.
The CD Project in particuliar is the brain child of Core Redonnett, guitarist for the band and well known for his work with the Blue Man Group in Boston.
"We'll be using a lot of talent at our disposal" says John Keyser, drummer and church member, "we have lots of kids (and adults) with talent".