[COLOR="DarkRed"]THIS GOES IN THE NON-DOMESTIC SECTION ! ;)

Zimgars are Pearl stencils from the '60's. Usually they are Luan shells, kinda rough edges...the typical Japanese '60's fare. HOWEVER, I did stumble across a ZimGar snare on eFlay once which actually was a 3-ply Japanese Birch shell. So, if the shell looks like birch (which looks like mapleguitar3) then it's probably worth snagging at least as a piece of material. if the wood is darker and the grains run vertical, it's Luan and may be worth something for the hardware on it, only...or if the wrap is super-cool.[/COLOR];)

In the pics it looks like birch. It is just the shell and lugs. $10. + $10 gas to go get it. Probably not worth the trouble.

Turquois sparkle.

That's all you need. If the price is right, you may want to buy it. A friend of mine has a ZimGar (birch/maple) kit, sounds great! He's took it on tour with Bonnie Raitt a few years ago, everyone loved them.

If it was complete $20 would be a deal. Since its not complete don't waste anymore of your time on it. It would require a lot of work no matter how complete it is to make it sound good anyway.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]I kinda disagree w/ you, LD. I agree w/ JR.

If it is the birch shell, for $20...go grab it. If the lugs are good and the wrap is good, you can clean it up and add the rest of the hardware for, what ? Less than $50 ( 2 hoops, a butt, and a throwoff ). It'd be a nice snare drum...[/COLOR]

I disagree with you Jaye....having owned both types of cheap 60's japanese drums before (luan and birch) the quality is still suspect, the hardware won't hold up to the riggors of the road over the long haul and the sound is not that good. For the money that would have to be invested to make it a descent drum you could go buy an 80's Ludwig Rocker or Rocker II snare drum that sounds much better and has better build quality to start with...if you want a wood shell that is, otherwise I'd go pick up an acrolite for the same money.....and we all know the quality and sound of those.....

I kindda dig my ZimGar snare. It's a luan shell, and it's ringy, but Jaye posted some techniques to improve the tone in an earlier thread which I plan to try. I like these stencils for their nostalgic value to me, my folks couldn't post the bucks for a set of Ludwigs or Slingerlands, so I got started on a set of Telestars out of the Sears catalog. But, man, that was one big Christmas for this old dog!! I've picked up a ZimGar, an Ultratone, a Revelle, and a Tempro lately for less than fifty each, and I'm having a blast polishing them up, switching heads around to experiment with different tones, and playing them! It's great practice for me, as I'm so new at refurbishing and repairing, too. I've got three sets of "Big Name" drums, and seven other snares, all with varying degrees of restorations to be done, and these stencils are a great help to me in getting ready for the upcoming bigger projects. And they're just plain fun!!! Hey, and the ZimGar came with it's own drum key in a genuine plastic imitation leather key pouch, with optional handy-snap closure included!!! Not bad for $39.86, huh ??

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Snares are so variable, sometimes. Honestly, I have had some luan-shelled snares which sounded better than their maple counterparts. And you can work 'em up a bit to get them sounding sharper.

I agree with you LD that the hardware may (or may NOT) be a bit lightweight. Some '60's Japanese hardware was hecka good...really heavy-duty stuff. I have some Whitehalls and Majestics that just had really good, heavy hardware. But more was kinda thin and not really made for the long haul.

As far as wood, IMHO, I would rather have an old Japanese maple or birch shell which I could tweak the edges on than a Rocker any day, though.... [/COLOR]

Im looking at a kit with Mahog shells and reinforcing rings that could be maple or birch.Ever heard of that before?