I use remo vintage ambassador heads on all my vintage mij kits. They fit like a glove and the retro logo is cool as hell!

Nice, and welcome to the forum!

I agree with Surfdrummer, I use basically Remo coated Ambassadors on all my vintage/MIJ kits. I even use the coated ones on the bottoms of the toms, warms the sound a little more (imo), and looks cool. I do use a coated P4 on the bass batter sometimes, love it.

Cheers.

Welcome to the forum.

Nice looking kit there,I like the longer throw off arm that extends above the rim on the snare,makes it easy to switch from snare to tom sound with a flick of the stick.Handy when you you need to do that mid song.

Your kit looks to be well made,notice the wood reinforcement plate to strenghten where the tom brackets are.The bearnig edges look to be

well done also.Looks like they will tune up pretty easily.

From looking at the pic fo the shell int I am thinking your kit was made 3 11 1966,if you look at the re ring it appears to be date stamped 31166.Do the other shells on the kit have a stamp or numbers on them?

From what I have heard about MIJ thin ply w/re rering shells is that they generally don't do be bop table top high tunings that well because of the combined thinness of the shell and softness of the wood,but can sound quite good at med high to low tunings as long as the shells are fairly in round and the edges are good.

I guess heads that tune quickly and at low tunings would be good candidates,the luddy weathermasters appear to have a good collar for that,along with Evans 360 type heads,and also the Attack Terry Bozio heads,I have used all of these and they tune up quick and seem to spin freely on all of my drums,vintage and modern.

Hello and Welcome,

You can check out Tama's website for vintage drums by yourself (either 60's or early first catalogue of the 70's):

http://www.tamadrum.co.jp/anniversary/

... or my website ... ;-)

I'd also recommend Ambas coated as batter heads and clear or coated ones as resos.

For my bass drums it is more important to put a pillow inside, which must be big enough to touch both heads a little bit. Plus a 5" bass drum 'O' in the resonant head to adjust the pillow from outside, if necessary. The choice of the head is seconds, but a Power Stroke works fine for me.

Cheers, Ralf

Thanks @triluk_gurtu @surfdrummer01

I think I'm gonna try the vintage ambas for the batter side and coated ambas for the resonant side! I already ordered a ludwig medium coted and xthin head for the snare :)

Thanks for the feedback and info!

You're right I did notice it tunes better at med to low tuning. Yes all the drums have those rings with the round edges and marked 31166.

Hello Ralf, I have checked out that tama catalouge in the pst but I couldnt find a kit that matched mine completely, I had also stumbled upon ur website before too! :) great work.

Based on your timeline I found my kit to be from 1966, with a few different parts. My snare drum has a diff strainer and a round type damper system. Also, my bass pedal looks like the 61' or 67' pedal. Im guessing they used this kit for jazz since i found it with light sticks and wire brushes.

I tried finding some info on the original owner but found nothing online. The bass drum has Ron Baxter hand painted on it. He also wrote his name on the top and bottom snare heads. Anyone ever heard of a Ron Baxter?

I recommend an Aquarian SKI for the BD batter and any reso that has a built-in ring on the inside,...and a port hole.

Thanks for your compliment - appreciated!

It won't be easy to give it a precise production year. Back in the 60's it was all done in paper work - and those papers might no longer exist ...

Also, everything wasn't that clear like we today think it should have been.

Even the Tama website doesn't show an all-over set of catalogues of that time ...

Guess it's easier when you can say 'around 1965' (or so) for the probable production date of your kit.

Cheers, Ralf