I want to refinish my drum set with a natural stain. It already has a stain on it right now but I was wondering if there was anything i needed to be careful about so i didn't ruin them. I was thinking paint thinner to remove the one on it now then just get a wood stain and put it on it, but I'm a bit nervous with putting that on my drums.

If you are nervous about a little paint thinner...maybe you should rethink this!!

Seriously, if you want to pursue this, you will need to use a furniture stripper (paint thinner won't even come close) to remove the lacquer that is protecting the stain. Once you have that completely removed, then depending on if you are going dark --> light or light --> dark there are about a thousand steps to take to get it back to showroom condition. Having taken on this type of project many times over the years...if I am RECOVERING, I will do that, but everytime I have REFINISHED, I haven't really been happy with the finished project, but I am a perfectionist. If you really want to keep this particular set of drums and insist on changing the stain, look into having it professionally done.

I don't mean to be negative, just trying to save you some heartache with my 30+ years of experience (and screwing up).

Haha thanks.
My drums actually don't have a hard lacquer. It's kind of a matte finish. I really like the type of finish on it now but I want a change in color.

hey... I know this is an old post, but I'm just starting out and need to learn about this stuff.
REFINISHING sounds like a daunting task indeed, but you mentioned RECOVERING. Can you tell me more about that? Thanks