This project starts with a phone call by my colleague Adrián, owner of a 10″x7″ Tama Silverstar tom that he wanted to convert into a snare drum.
I disassembled all the parts so I could make the snare beds, a necessary structure so the snares lay correctly on the ressonant head. I messured many times to make sure I was not making mistakes and marked the points on the shell.
I used a dremmel and then sanded the edges until they were perfectly smooth. Here you can see the original state and the beds already cut.
I made a couple of diametrically opposed snare gates in the bottom counter hoop so the snares can pass through it. As you can see, I also added a butt plate; luckily, it was the same brand as the tom.
I also added a a snare strainer.
The drum now features a new Remo Ambassador snare clear, batter head, straps by Gibraltar and a 20-strand snare.
Thge new batter head is a Remo Ambassador coated.
A couple of photos.
The owner is very happy with the conversion and he is already using it as a secondary snare drum on his kit.
Well, the kind of weird stuff that I like making for my friends. Je suis luthier!!!
…et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés