Looks like a recover to me.

Mango - thx! So you're saying you believe somebody had the kit refinished? I'm certainly no expert on these things. If so, what model would it be? Besides the badges and the same serial # on all of them, all I see is "all maple shell".

There is no telling. Can you take a closer-up of the badge? We are like forensic scientists. Although, this is not a very vintage kit, considering what MOST people of this site consider it. Mainly, we look at most drums before the widespread use of highly technological machinery in the manufacturing process of the shells. For instance, Ludwig may have been using the new molds for the later 3 ply shells, after the time they stopped scarfing the wrap, but did not go 100% mechanical with shells until the 6 ply and later eras, which we consider the "Modern Era".

About the same time, all the other "big 4" went this route, and then began the outsourcing of shells to to mainly one company, for the larger part of the intermediate and entry level, then finally to China and Korea. These factories are, at least some are, subsidiaries of TAMA and PEarl, making many of todays stencil brands...

The biggest reason Japan was missed as a stencil maker in the eventual outsourcing was because by the time this was kosher, TAMA and Pearl were outsourcing themselves to their subsidiaries in Taiwan, and eventually, Korea and China...so follow the timeline, follow the decline in one set of major players, and the incline of another.

So, to give a good, solid answer, those appear to be re-wrapped late 80s-early 90s Pearl maple shells. The series really doesn't matter as this is an era dominated by basically an entry level, Export, and intermediate lines. If Pearl cared about it's history as much as TAMA/Star, we would be able to find the invaluable resources of their catalogs, like TAMA keeps up for us to peruse. Contacting them about this discrepancy, for my own part, has lead me to see that they have no interest in helping us ID our old Pearl/Pearl stencils, but purely in selling us "New and Improved"...like most of their history, "buy your next set of disposable drums here!"

I know, I know, Pearl has some really nice upper mid and high end drums, however the lower-intermediate to entry level stuff is simply dismissed by the company as non-unique and therefore disposable. Learn how to play on this junk, throw it away and buy some high dollar stuff!

This is not to say that Pearl is not historically significant in the stencil market, but once Star exited, they seemed to take a Mal-Mart sort of ideology. Provide every-day value, then send them elsewhere for the good stuff. Pearl would do well to implement a program of preservation such that TAMA has undertaken, with the help of several forum members, to make sure we ID as much of their history as possible.

OK, off the Soap Box

I have seen Pearl drums with limited production run coverings,like for NAMM or something like that,or only Europe or only Asia etc.If thats a recover,I have some work for THAT guy.By the way-those are nice drums.Cast rims on the snare,clear interiors indicate high-end product.They blurred their product names and designations so much I have no idea what those are called.

I'm going to assume that determining the actual model is pretty much nil, but I will post a close up of the badges later anyhow.

Thanks you guys!

Also the interior. It helps as well to ID what shells they are.

Will the shells on the inside have some kind of identifying marks/#'s? Or you just mean, based on the appearance?

Gracias.

We can sometimes tell more by looking inside a drum.

Looks like 80s all maple shell Pearls. Nice looking drums..