Per Jim's encouragement, and after having had him guide me through the process of
setting up a score in Finale 2004 for World Percussion, here is the process:

Assuming you are using the Finale 2004 template from
Tapspace:

In SCROLL VIEW:

1.  Delete the staves you do not want.
2.  Click on the STAFF Tool (It is the icon with the treble clef)
3.  Go to Staff on your menu
4.  Click on New Staves (with set-up wizard)
5.  Click on “percussion” in the left side of the dialog box
6.  Go to the next box to your right and click on “percussion”
7.  Now click ADD for as many new instruments as you require.
8.  Go to the bottom of the dialog box and the drop-down menu.
You’ll see ";Orchestral.";  Scroll down and select “custom.”
9.  Click OK.
10.  You are back in the score.
11.  Click on the STAFF tool.
12.  Now double-click somewhere in the first measure of your first added staff.
13.  A Staff Attributes dialog box will appear.
14.  Go to the bottom of the dialog box where you see Notation Style
15.  Use the drop down menu and select “Percussion”
16.  Now click “select”
17.  You will now see a long list of instruments, including those from VDL2.
Select the instrument you wish to employ for the staff you are editing.

If anyone has corrections to what I have offered or input to
make the process work better, please let me know.

Neal Flum

Great post Neal! Thanks for offering some advice on assigning staff mappings in Finale 2004...I'm sure it will come in handy for many other folks looking to do the same thing.