Marching drums

A couple of years ago I bought some old marching drums. I have seen various high school marching bands playing this type of drums in the Holyoke Saint Patrick's Day parade. They always sounded really cool, and when I found some really cheap ones on eBay, I bought them. I think I paid about $60 + shipping for these.   The red ones are Pearl marching drums 8", 10", 12", and 13". The glittery green ones are old Slingerlands 14" and 16".  The Pearls were originally white, but someone painted them with a hideous red paint. I thought about removing the red paint and using these toms with my pearlescent white set, but I don't really enjoy using paint remover. Stripping old paint off drums is very messy and toxic. I've done it before. The Sparkly green covering on the Slingerlands actually looks cool. It makes me want to play surf music. Unfortunately the wrap is not in great shape.
   So all the wrap had to go. I was gonna strip these drums down to the bare wood. They would probably work well with my old 28" Leedy bass drum. This bass drum is lacquered wood. I took off all the hardware today (March 23rd,2013) and started to remove the covering off the smallest Pearl. I ran into trouble right away - the wrap is glued really solidly to the shell. It started to come off in little pieces. I regretted my decision already. I should have just stripped the paint. Well, too late now. I kept chipping away using various spatulas and knives until I stabbed my thumb with my knife. I am going to try with a heat gun next.

I have been thinking about  how to set the drums up. Should I try to keep this marching configuration and place the bass drum under the two smallest toms? That would certainly open up possibilities that you would not even think of with a more traditional setup. (Just check out Bill Bruford's setup if you have a chance) Or should I just set them up in the traditional way? That way I could play extra long descending drum fills. I wish I had a 6" marching tom to complete the set.
To be continued....