Project Description
I just can’t help but re-home orphans… especially 9 ply Beech shells made by Sonor in the early 80s. Do you remember the advert: ‘The Rolls Royce of Drums’?
Like all products until you have had the chance to pick them up, inspect the quality and see for yourself if something is well made then it’s easy to be sceptical. This is so true of Sonor Phonics from the 70s/80s, plus if you can lift the bass drum to start with you’ll get the idea that they are staggeringly well built drums and some of my firm favourites as far as modern vintage drums go.
Stage 1: Bad Berleburg we have a problem!
So Nikko Mcbrain had just gone back to Sonor and I blame him for this project as if I had not ‘gone down the rabbit hole’ on YouTube one evening and watched David Winter talking about his old grey ‘Hi-Tech’ kit (which I loved) this probably would never have started…
Anyway…
What turned out to be a random eBay purchase after watching this has taken an altogether different route interestingly so here we go:
DONOR ONE: Weighing in the left corner is a rather heavyweight Sonor Performer 1988 22×16 9 ply bass drum in a non standard chrome finish with the wrong hoops and looking a bit worse for wear. Still weighs a ton and built like a brick sh*t house!
DONOR TWO: Thanks To Brett Biggs via Facebook Marketplace for this silver (now more oyster) 1983 13×9 Phonic 9 ply tom. Such a lovely drum, sadly I’m going to removed the wrap. It’s worth noting that most wrap I remove from drums is recycled. This particular covering is destined to be hoop inlays on a Premier ‘nest’ kit which is all sat in boxes waiting to be built.
DONER THREE: Still hunting TBA…
So… it’s going to be a one up one down affair, sadly not a 18 piece Nikko tribute but maybe on a Gibraltar Stealth rack to give it a bit of a twist as I’ll need something hefty to hold up this tom as it’s rather heavy. But what finish?
It was at this point I stumbled upon Herbert Heim’s amazing vintage Sonor collection in Germany, have a look here and prepare to dribble:
https://hheim-vintagedrums.de/
Herbert has a stunning Sonor Phonic XK 984 jazz kit which took my heart and from further investigation I found he has had it re-veneered in Rosewood. This to me is the definitive Sonor Phonic from the 70/80s so I decided to follow suit with realwood veneering.
Stage 2: Sourcing Veneer and stripping shells
So far I only have the two shells but my feelers are out for a 16 or 18 (18 would be better) but I want to start so I stripped down both drums to the shells and sanded the interiors and exteriors. Sonor use glue for their wraps but luckily it’s thinly applied and after 35 years very dry so easy to remove. The 22 uses the same 9 ply Phonic shell (note: Performer Toms are 6 ply) so I’m going to keep the shell construction to Phonic spec throughout (or 10 if you include the outer veneer). Both drum are so nice to work on due to the quality of the workmanship. I did smooth out the bearing edges but all in all they are in fine shape for the age.
The veneer came from a UK eBay seller and is paper backed to stop it breaking apart. This may or may not prove to be an issue but I wanted to use large sheets (600mm x 2500mm) to make less joins on the shell. The figuring is great – very similar to the older Sonor kits so I’m pleased with this so far. Sonor use realwood veneers from Alpi but the exchange rate is so bad at the moment due to Brexit that I sourced locally. I am also not 100% sure what the CITES regs are with importing rosewood veneer or if that’s only for guitars but it’s here so all good.
Herbert commisioned a local specialist joiner to fit his veneer and they used vac bags to secure it to the shell during the drying process – which sounds the best way to do it. Luckily my uncle used to work as an aircraft fabricator at Heathrow and knows a chap who has the kit for his carbon fibre business so I shall try and scrounge a bit of help with this as my original plan was to glue and iron it on.
I have an old Pearl shell left over from the Tiger kit I wrapped so I’m going to have a go with that first to see how my iron on method works. If not I’ll get some bin liners and the hoover out – watch this space!
Stage 3: The veneering process
The muse:
Above left is my inspiration for this project. I think anyone can appreciate that this is quite a good kit! It’s belongs to Arnulf Brunners form Villach, Austria and part of a monster 3 bass drum kit so I have my work cut out getting up to this level of work. Before I post the first stage veneering pics I have managed to snag a floor tom from the ‘bay’ – only a Performer sadly so six ply I believe but everything else is big bucks and would render the project null and void. Hey ho… Still, will look the part and be a bit lighter – only 7mm thick rather than 10 (before I add a bit more) and I hope beechwood as per the bass drum. More info here:
After a test on the Pearl tom I was happy that although vacuum bags would be better I can get away with the iron on method but only if I use 3 glue up stages on both shell and veneer. It’s quite a simple process but very time consuming and a labour of love but I am pleased with the results. It’s also worth noting that you can see from the pictures that I am wrapping leaving a 5mm gap from the veneer edge to the top of the shell. This is for two reasons: 1) Sonor shells are smaller sized to create better ‘head float’ so I don’t want to change the dynamics of how the drum is designed to function, 2) Finishing short gives me a less chance of lift from the veneer from head changes, fiddling fingers or knocks. Here’s the process:
- Mix glue with 1;10 ratio of water to glue
- Apply with brush then use print roller to smooth glue to thin equal coverage – 3x each. Use hair dryer in-between coats to speed up process
- Iron on veneer to shell using damp cloth then direct iron – heat at cotton setting
- Sand and fill as required – apply 3 x coats of gun oil, sanding in-between with 600 grit wet and dry. Finally 2 x coats of bees wax and the interior shell too.
So here we are after a whole day of work ‘one down’ and I think it’s pretty much spot on. Very much like the later rosewood Sonors of the 80’s. Don’t think anyone can complain about that… only 2 more to go!
Stage 4: Finished…
