First - Good for you! Don't believe everything you read about drums and drum manufacturing. Much of it is speculation and even more is based on samples taken over a period of time in a particular location. Bad science.

Second - Your drums are not composite shells. The R-340 was made by REMO and as such, was a composite. Yours are the R-360 series which was "Select Asian Hardwoods". These were mahogany shells (luan wood). It is not the best wood, but if it is treated correctly it can actually sound very nice. Yours was obviously built with skilled hands. That's what it takes. Those are fairly decent shells built by Yamaha. These were also one of the first runs, if yours is a 68 kit. That's when they started production of this series. That's not a bad thing. These were built to compete with the import drums at the time. The first generation were pretty cool. Your kit had some cool finish choices - Red Ripple, Blue Ripple, Marine Pearl, Blue Oyster, Black Oyster, and Red Umber. Which did you go with? I would love to see some pics of it. The hardware was pretty slick, too. They had a second generation of these around 80 or so. Those were 'icky'. They had those silly Pearl Pipe bass/tom mounts and such. You've got a neat old vintage kit that many would totally dig on playing. Take care of it and keep it singing.

I tried to upload a pic but it didn't load. I am not good at reducing the size & I think that is the problem. I think the color was called black strata pearl it was the same as Ludwig's Ringo Starr kit

Okay I think I have an image that will install

I think you might be missing a tom. That looks to be the Double Soul outfit. I don't see a bass/cymbal mount and the tom mount appears to be fairly centered on the bass. That would infer that it's a double tom mount as opposed to a single tom mount. The absence of the bass/cymbal mount also guides me in that direction. Are you missing a tom?

That is a neat old kit. The pics are a bit blocky and difficult to distinguish details with these tired old eyes. It does appear to be a Black Oyster pearl wrap, but I may be wrong. No matter what, it's cool. I really like it. I would bet it has a nice warm woody yet limited sustain and a good attack. I would also imagine the projection and cut is pretty good. That's the characteristics of a well built and well treated Luan shell. Did you work the edges?

Okay so I am impressed. You really know your stuff about Rogers drums. I am missing a tom. It is the twelve inch tom, the kit was stolen at one time & one of the culprits got religion & decided to give it back minus a tom. That is why it was in storage so long I just felt that without the tom it wouldn't sound right.

I started looking at my Pearl kit & wondering just what made it sound so great & I know the wood has a lot to do with it but it is also a thin four ply shell. I looked at my Rogers & saw they also looked to be about four ply thin shell of what ever wood they were & realizing just how sturdy they were. The ring on the bass drum is chrome on both edges with the oyster inlay in the middle very pretty & well made I don't see many drums made like that. I decided to clean them up & put the best heads I had from other drums on this kit so as not to spend too much just to find out how they sounded. I tuned the 13" tom up & the 16" floor tom down to get the sound I wanted. They have great sustain especially the floor tom. The bass drum has a very low throaty sound for a 20" bass it is really surprising. Over all the sound is very mellow with great sustain.

I haven't done a great clean up job like taking all the parts off & cleaning individually but they look great the way they are. They are in such good shape they didn't need much attention. I was just blown away by the sound. I never expected it. I have gone through many transitions in my drumming life, the big rock kit with concert toms, electronic kits & everything in between for studio work & live performances. After all this time I think I have finally matured as a drummer. I care more about substance than style, more about quality than size. I still carry more equipment to a gig than I would care too but I make what I carry work for me & the band & I wouldn't hesitate to carry these Rogers to any gig. It's also great because I got these when I was a kid & I had them in my bedroom & would fall asleep every night looking at them. It is great to see them again & appreciate just how good they are so they mean a lot to me. It is sad that one of the toms is missing but maybe I can find one someday maybe not it doesn't really matter. It might affect the value of the kit but as I said I am not trying to sell them.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]....so he'll only be in hell 20% of the time.....

I wouldn't worry about the missing tom...too bad, but oh, well....you know, these have been fetching surprisingly high bids on eFlay lately...in the $500-700 range, not because people actually mistake them for American Rogers but because of their very unique wraps. Yours actually has a classic American Rogers wrap, which is interesting. Most others have wraps which scream 'Japan'.

Anyways, as you say, if it works for you, great. I like the fact it's a 1-owner kit, that's cool. McJ is right, probably luan shells. I think the ire against these isn't so much about what they ARE, but what they AREN'T.

That is to say, they say Rogers on 'em...but nothing about them is Rogers as people know Rogers to be.

So, enjoy...take care of her, and know that she does have some market value (don't ever alter anything, though...no extra holes, no redone edges...just leave as factory) should you ever need to part with it...[/COLOR]

Thanks, but I really don't know squat about Rogers. There are guys on this forum that have forgotten more than I will ever know about Rogers drums. I recently purchased my FIRST Rogers kit...ever. I've read about them and have popped 'em a few times, but I have never taken the plunge...until now. I picked up a 69 Londoner in Silver Sparkle. Pretty neat old kit. I'm cleaning it up right now. It will turn out pretty nice. Like you, I am missing the 12 inch tom. Kind of strange. Somewhere out there is a field of poppys with 123,749 left socks and two 12 inch toms. We'll have to find that field and retrieve our toms one day. Until then, watch ebay and maybe we'll get lucky. A few pics of the inside of your shells and your bearing edges would probably make the guys on the forum happy. That's something we check out regularly. It helps to get a real handle on the drums. Thanks.

This is a great site thanks for all of your help. I would be happy to show the inside of the shell if it would be of interest to anyone on this site. Do you think just showing the inside of one drum would be enough as they are all alike except different sizes?

Just one drum would do. What it does is verify the type of wood and the plies. It also confirms the screws/washers used and the rerings and the edges. Whether you're dating a drum or identifying it, some part of all of that comes into play when you are nailing it down.