Well the lugs are late 60's early 70's as used on the "President Series".. the badge is pretty rare though... have only seen it a couple of times and someone referred to it as the "Mod" badge... Guys at the Pearl forum will probably have a handle on it...

Cheers

John

Those lugs are called coffin lugs. I would date that kit in between 68 to72 that kit with those shells are highly saught after too bad it doesnt have a funky weird wrap that would up the value.

Sorry, but at least the BD is NOT phenolic... I see the distinct plies of wood on the edges there in your second pic.

Nice looking drums, though!

What would you suppose they are then? There is no other Pearl shell that is dark like this. The store I am buying them from says that the inside of the shells are shiny and smooth, unlike any wood they have ever seen. That coupled with the dark brown led me to believe that they are the phenolic shells.

Here is a picture I found online of a phelonic shell. It seems to match, but I will agree that mine does seem to have one ply of wood in the middle of the shell.

Perhaps they are the wood/fiberglass shells??

I've owned one of those before and the fiberglass was a much lighter color. If it is not phenolic shells, then I am at a loss. I certainly is not the cheap luan shells. The guy at the store thought they were wood until he took the head off and then stated that they were smooth and not like wood at all. Hard to say.

They are phenolic shells.. Pearl referred to the material as "Plastic Fibreboard"... not sure about how the laminations were done... Is it possible that the apparent lighter ply in the pic is a wax, or lube of some sort??

The wood fibreglass kits were 9 ply with an inner coating of FG.. and light in colour

(your new kit should sound magic)..

Cheers

John

Sorry so long to reply. The second pic you posted that you found online is definitely phenolic. As I've looked over the pic at the top... well as you look at it what I took to be the plies just isn't right. At first glance it appears to be multi-plies, but a closer look reveals two things: 1) You can only count what appears to be 3 plies, and that shell looks to thick to be just 3. 2) The lighter, center "ply" doesn't stay in a consistent position.

So... I take back my original thought, and have to say my "best guess" is that it IS phenolic. The interior color and the overall thickness does suggest this. I have no idea what that lighter color on the edge is...

Again, good looking drums. The phenolic shells can be tuned up very much like Pearl's FG shells.

As for the W/FG, they were a 9-ply shell with a layer of FG on the inside. They were produced from 1970 to 78or9. Some of the very early ones had sort of a tan-colored finish, but by far the most of them were white on the inside. All of these shell types Pearl used during this period were top-notch, IMO...