COW slingerland “David Robinson” project

[BBeyer]

I’ve wanted to built a COW kit like David used in the Cars for a while..I play in a Cars tribute and just think it would be cool to have.. but the elusive 14x14” tom was holding the whole thing up. Any of them that COULD be found are way expensive and had too nice of a finish on them to be peeling it off to throw chrome on there… BUT I found a guy in Canada that had a couple of 5 ply power tom shells that he nearly gave to me for nothing. The rest of the shells I have are 3 ply, but the hanging 14x14 and 10x14 shells are 5 ply. I’m usually a stickler for a kit having the same shells, but this one doesn’t bother me much..
3 ply 14x24,16x18,14x16 (the 14” deep FT is probably a converted concert tom)
5 ply 10x14 14x14

This will be COOL.. I need to order chrome wrap (probably jammin Sam) and I’m still missing quite a bit of parts.. a few hoops, bass drum legs, probably a handful of lugs, tom mounting hardware (I’m not sure if I’ll go with the original set o matic stuff) and some FT leg brackets.

Does anyone have a box of slingerland parts collecting dust?

 

[BBeyer]

I ordered repro stainless spur legs from a guy named Steve Ellis, some other odds and ends (T-bolts and badge grommets) from Jim Moritz, and chrome wrap from Jammin Sam.. the next on the list is don’t FT leg brackets. Man, I thought fibes parts were hard to find! Slingerland FT brackets are almost impossible to find. I’m going to try these Yamaha stage custom brackets that fit the same 2-1/4” hole spacing.
Sam wanted me to take the drums apart and be sure on the depths before ordering wrap, so I ended up calling him back twice before we ended up actually making the transaction. He REALLY doesn’t like people using glue for wrap and talked me into tape.. also tried to talk me into his threaded grommets, which I might have went for if I didn’t already score the chicago drum re-pops.
Next on the needs list is a sticksaver 16” hoop, and one or two in 14”

And then.. heads… ugh I hate buying a whole drum sets worth of heads

Pics won’t upload to the forum for some reason…

 

[Talktotommy]

Looks like a great project. Hope you get it all together soon. Using the tape would be my only concern.

 

[healthie1]

Threaded grommets are nice but a bit pricey comparatively. I bought a bunch of 5/8th grommets for around 30 cents a piece. Cool project. Have you considered some quality-of-life modern upgrades like rim mounts, etc., on these (also due to the availability and cost of vintage parts), or are you wanting to be pretty true to the original, excluding the 14x14?

 

[BBeyer]

Threaded grommets are nice but a bit pricey comparatively. I bought a bunch of 5/8th grommets for around 30 cents a piece. Cool project. Have you considered some quality-of-life modern upgrades like rim mounts, etc., on these (also due to the availability and cost of vintage parts), or are you wanting to be pretty true to the original, excluding the 14x14?

What do you mean, excluding the 14x14?

 

[healthie1]

What do you mean, excluding the 14x14?

My mistake, I thought you were unable to find a 14x14; I re-read your post and saw you did find one.

 

[BBeyer]

My mistake, I thought you were unable to find a 14x14; I re-read your post and saw you did find one.

Ahhh, I get it now!
Yeah I was excited to find that 14x14, and even more excited to see that it was set up from the factory with a setomatic mount (it was a power Tom)
I still don’t know if I was to actually USE the clunky old set o matic stuff, or use a set of iso mounts / RIMS etc

 

[Houndog]

Ahhh, I get it now!
Yeah I was excited to find that 14x14, and even more excited to see that it was set up from the factory with a setomatic mount (it was a power Tom)
I still don’t know if I was to actually USE the clunky old set o matic stuff, or use a set of iso mounts / RIMS etc

The Tom mounts aren’t to hard to source , I’d imagine finding the stands would be quite harder …..

 

[BBeyer]

The Tom mounts aren’t to hard to source , I’d imagine finding the stands would be quite harder …..

The Tom mounts aren’t to hard to source , I’d imagine finding the stands would be quite harder …..

I have a stand with a super setomatic on it.. but it’s pretty flimsy by todays standards. I’m still not sure what I’ll do in that department

 

[SKSMITH]

This sounds like a cool project.
I would only advise against using tape and go ahead and use contact cement. Just my 2 cents.
I've used 3M Fastbond 30NF water-based contact cement with excellent results. I've seen factory taped drums (Pearl comes to mind, but there are others) that the seams have pulled loose and the wrap buckles at lugs. And these are factory finished, which you would feel would be better that an at-home rewrap.
Looking forward to project pics no matter which way you go!

 

[BBeyer]

I’ve wrapped with tape and with glue, and none of my seams ever have issues, so far. The first jammin Sam wrap job I did, came with tape, but I also laid down glue (I kept it away from the taped areas though)

I added concert Tom’s and a 20” bass drum to that kit recently and just used tape for the bass drum but glued the mini Toms. I don’t see much of a drawback to using the tape… although I TRIED to not order the wrap with the tape. Sam did a lot of work talking me out of glue, haha. He seems to really HATE glue!

 

[BBeyer]

Whoops! I should’ve measured my Bassdrum Spurs before only ordering three of them, it looks like the one spur I had was for a 22 inch or smaller drum. These things that he builds are pretty spot on and nicely made.
And here’s an example of what the Yamaha floor tom mounts look like… Also, a picture of the chrome wrap from Sam’s website.

 

[DolFan54]

Tape might be fine with other wraps. But chrome shows every bubble. I did a Yamaha floor Tom in chrome years ago using the tape method. After a few months I ended up glueing it down with much better results visually. Cool project, looking forward to seeing the final results.

 

[healthie1]

That red sparkle is really nice, are you planning on re-using it for anything?

 

[BBeyer]

That red sparkle is really nice, are you planning on re-using it for anything?

I have a pearl 14” tom that’s getting cut down to a snare.. I might try and scavenge the red wrap for that shell

 

[BBeyer]

Yamaha stage custom FT brackets have arrived. They fit, although the holes need to be slightly enlarged, which may be “not ok” for some people.. these drums are a little bit “whooped” anyway, so I don’t really care… that being said, if I was restoring a nice 4 piece WMP pearl kit, etc, I wouldn’t even be Bothering with aftermarket legs to begin with. This kit is going to be a mush mosh of shells and a total player grade setup.. so for my purposes, enlarging some holes is OK.
I took a detour on the project and repaired the air hole grommet on our ‘63 slingerlands, sort of to test out grommet tools on these chicago drum grommets.. more than anything. But it worked nice.
Since I have this red sparkle 18”, I’m going to set this up as a 6 piece kit for an upcoming gig. After that, the 18” will have its wrap removed.
The 16” FT on the kit shown is NOT the 14x16 FT that will be used on the COW kit

 

[Houndog]

I’m going to very curious to see what you think of Slingerlands being a Fibes guy …
I know what I think …..

 

[BBeyer]

I’m going to very curious to see what you think of Slingerlands being a Fibes guy …
I know what I think …..

I’ve played on slingerlands long before I ever knew what fibes was.. my dad always had a set of slingerlands. I veered away from them at one time because they didn’t seem to have enough volume to compete with the guitar amps for most of the gigs I was doing, and I’d go home after a gig with sore wrists from wailing on those Toms to try and cut through (no mics on the kit). That was usually roundover edge 3 ply stuff. I haven’t ever gigged on a 5 ply kit, which IMO would be much more cutting with the sharper bearing edges..
These days I’m always miced up, so I assume that volume thing won’t be an issue for this band.
PLUS, that deep thuddy tone was THE cars sound, anyway, so they’ll probably work out just right

 

[BBeyer]

Peeling the wrap off the 16” and removing this white paint and Wmp from the 10x14… yuck!
Citristrip is helping with the white paint but it’s just a mess. The wrap came off easily on that tom with a little heat. Not so easy on the 16”.. I remember my dad taking these to a guy on Long Island to have them wrapped in red sparkle, back in the 80s.
He must’ve used cabinet grade Formica glue or something. This is going to be fun to clean off!

 

[ncdrumr]

Very cool project- makes me nostalgic. Great band and great drummer. He really thought about his parts, and never detracted from the tune, imo.