mine were compressed fiber with a wrap in 84.

Hi What shape are the lugs in? Are they pointy at one end?...These shells are 8 or 9 ply mahogany wood with a painted finish in the inside of the shell..They are lower ended drums like the shells you would fine on Pearl exports from the 80's...As a gigging set and you are not putting out alot of money on the set.I see they on C/L all the time for 200.00-300.00 for a 5 piece set with cymbals ete..then yes its a good gigging set..Mikey

Thanks Para! And I always appreciate your posts Mikey - thanks. Please have a look. Hard to tell - so these are fibre shells?

[IMG]http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g179/troutstudio/trout/drums/tama-2.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g179/troutstudio/trout/drums/tama-1.png[/IMG]

No, these are wood shells. Probably mahogany and possibly with a maple interior veneer to "straighten out" the sonic pattern. They should make for a good to great gigging kit, depending on the style of tunes. I see they appear to be power toms, so they should project well. Give them a test drive, see what you think, only you can make the call on how they sound. If they are plain mahogany, with open grain, you can remedy that with some sandpaper and lacquer, never polyurethane.

Don't think they were a fiber shell, I had a 85 swingstar set they had a paint that looks like sprayed on fiberglass on the interiors... I'm not sure of the plys and type of wood but they were definitely wood drums. All I know is they sounded better than the cb700 pearl and ludwigs my friends owned.

That badge looks like a late 80' early 90's drum.I'm pretty sure they are 9 ply mahogany like Imperialstars.The hardware is decent and they should sound like Imperialstars,which is a very good thing.

Steve B

I've got an 84 kit and it has the Zola-cote interiors (speckle gray) and the xtras sizes 9x10 11x12 12x13 13x14 16x16 16x22. as i recall they were Basswood interiors once they had the nicer ply inside and even the standard shell was thicker than Export, (up intill 87 when export got a ply of birch inside) I have a few nicer kits but this "starter set" keeps hanging around becase it just holds up. aside from the tom brackets and only 6 lug 14" tom and 8 lug 22" kick drum these were nearly the same as imperialstar, and these were actually made in Japan, not Taiwan like the Export and World series Pearl Sets.

with all that aside these drums get serious bang for the buck, tough as nails they shrug off weather and being brought in from the cold into stuffy bar without gong out of round due to the zola-cote and completly glued wraps, they sound good with some pinstripes or hydralics on them. my only gripe is the stubby little bassdrum legs that let the kick slide away as you play it and the tom/floortom brackets, if you can get some superstar or imperial star type with the eyebolts.

By the photos of the drum.They would date from 1990 on why,Tama change the lugs to what i see on the tom in late 1989 and on,i don't see any paint on the inside of the shell in the photo.Tama stop useing the painted shell by 1989.But the biggest thing is the badge on the drum the first Tama Swingstar drums -[along with the other models} in the 80's had the "T" badge ..All this tells me that your shells are 9ply shells..Mikey

Please don´t call Luan for Mahogany.....It is not!

These are honest, well made lower end japanese drums - just as Clubdate says.

Regards

Jon