WLX Bass Drum Makeover

[leray1]

This is an extra bass drum that came with my DLX kit.

I stripped off the lacquer, sanded, and sanded some more, and sanded some more, ad nauseum. Applied a stain and some poly.

The following pics show the progression:


When they say patience is a virtue, this is the type of thing they had in mind.

I sanded a bunch after stripping and put on the stain when I thought it looked "good enough"



Not Good Enough.



So after a lot more sanding, this time with a power sander, this is good enough...


One coat of stain:


And another:


And after another and 3 coats of poly, sanding with steel wool in between, some new heads, hoops (didn't bother stripping its original hoops) and DLX-type lugs to replace the WLX lugs...and tada!










The only thing left is to make a cover plate to replace the tom mount. I have someone sending me some shell scrap to do that with.

[Rockdrum]

Great work!

[UK Tub thumper]

Totally awesome!!! Any chance I could purchase them old wlx lugs offa ya, bro??

[3pearlkits]

Leray,
I've been waiting for this lol

Great job as usual!
The result was well worth the effort.

So thats a snare and a bass drum,
Methinks you have a surprise in store for us soon...

[nusantara]

.
Excellent ! Classy look !
Thank's for sharing
.
PS: the LUGS that you put on that re-finished bass Drum are the WLX -Lugs, aren't they ? and not vice-versa DLX;
My WLX-Bassdrum (please refer to my signature below) has the same LUGS and CLAWS as yours (after refinished)
~chf.

[Slow95Cobra]

id hit it... with my foot..

looks great man, like all the other projects!

[leray1]

.
Excellent ! Classy look !
Thank's for sharing
.
PS: the LUGS that you put on that re-finished bass Drum are the WLX -Lugs, aren't they ? and not vice-versa DLX;
My WLX-Bassdrum (please refer to my signature below) has the same LUGS and CLAWS as yours (after refinished)
~chf.

Thanks. I think the WLX series had both lug styles. The ones that were on this drum were from the later years - see the before pic, here (it's the one on the right). The pic isn't the best, but there are differences in the shape, plus there are gaskets.

This explains it:

Here's a wee thing i put together some months ago. Hope it helps.

The World series was introduced in 1985 as an upmarket alternative to the Export. It was available in 2 variants the covered World 6500 Series (WX) and the laquered Prestige World 6500 (WLX).

They both had the same shells as the Dlx Which were 7ply Birch ,Mahogany and Super Lamin. The main differences being that they did not come with Super Hoops, had a downgraded snare drum and the Th-80 tom-holders from the export.
It must also be stressed these were taiwanese and NOT the Fantastic Japanese quality of the Dlx. If you put the 2 side by side you CAN see the difference, trust me.
Now, once Pearl had tragically decided to phase out the DLX in '87 sob! the World Series remained but was revamped in '89 and emerged with a new snare, new lugs, again like the exports and with NEW shells.
This New shell was 7 ply Birch and Mahogany, the real stuff mind not any of your bollocks Luan crap like some people seem to imply! These shells were still excellent quality and sounded awesome especially the Bass drum so no surprise there eh?
Eventually in '91 after running side by side with the Slx (Pretige Session Elite)the World Series was renamed the Prestige (Wlx) and Performance(Wx) Session Series. These 2 models shared the exact same shells the differences being the Snare drum, 1 colour option and the SLX had the dodgy 3-piece mock High tension lugs which were eventually inherited by the Export. Then sadly in '92 the Wlx/Wx were discontinued. So there it is!

Robbie.

[Ultraman Zoffy]

That is absolutely beautiful. Your patience and hard work really paid off!

[boomcrashbang]

AWESOME! you always do great restoration projects!

[ConvertedLudwigPLayer]

It looks great!

Did you sand with 0000 steel wool?

Did you spray or brush on the poly?

[leray1]

It looks great!

Did you sand with 0000 steel wool?

Did you spray or brush on the poly?

Thanks!

The bulk of the sanding was done with 80 grit - to get the lacquer and/or paint and/or primer off after stripping.
I went up to 220, then to 400 grit. I applied three coats of stain using staining pads. I then applied wipe-on poly using the staining pads, too. I used 0000 steel wool in between coats of poly.

[ConvertedLudwigPLayer]

Thanks!

The bulk of the sanding was done with 80 grit - to get the lacquer and/or paint and/or primer off after stripping.
I went up to 220, then to 400 grit. I applied three coats of stain using staining pads. I then applied wipe-on poly using the staining pads, too. I used 0000 steel wool in between coats of poly.

Thanks for the insight.

I will be removing the wrap off of an MX bass and figured spraying would likely be too inconsistent.

[leray1]

A wrap shouldn't give you too many problems. If it's like the two snares I've done there should only be two strips of tape to contend with. The shell will probably be pretty good and ready to stain or paint - maybe a light sanding to even things out. Good luck!

[Grishund68]

Awesome!

I was totally suprised that you actually came out with an excellent finish after beginning with lacquer! I wanted to stain my ddrum dominion because the paint looks very chipped. I thought it was impossble to sand all the paint off and stain but if you did it, I can do it too! I have all kinds of sanding tools like drum and belt sanders so this will be my thanksgiving break project. Any tips before I take on this momentous task??

[leray1]

Be careful with those sanders. You don't want to go through the first ply.

Speaking of, I'm in the middle of doing the same thing to a 13" black DLX tom to add to this bass drum.