Let me elaborate just for a moment...
I may have missed making my point in a better way, but I essentially was referring to the general way that the sounds in a drum set are applied. That being:
Snare drum and bass drum are generally more staccato by nature. The bass drum and snare drums are (generally speaking) "attenuated" -either via the snare wire set engaging the bottom resonant head for the snare drum...OR, for the bass drum, usually with some kind of special drumhead or a minimally invasive felt strip. So, generally speaking, those two drums are somewhat different animals from the toms.
I can't really make a qualitative judgement as to what is "good" or "bad" in terms of any of these sounds. But I am aware of a general kind of sound collective of which comprise the drum set.
A low drum pitched drum (bass drum)
A high pitched drum (snare drum)
An array of medium pitched drums which fit in-between the snare and the bass drum (tom toms)
And some super-high pitched sounds that form a definite contrast to the aforementioned drums (cymbals)
Now, how those basic details are ultimately tweaked is almost infinite! And that's a totally subjective thing. But that's the general rule.
So, with that in mind, the OP was asking how to get his vintage laun tom toms to sound more like modern tom toms. I was guessing that meant a more sustaining and resonant sound. And, in that case, I think the laun wood has certain limited capabilities in that regard. I think the best approach is to try and find a specific head combination (via trial and error) that brings out as much sound as possible.
In short, it's my belief that it would be easier to get a general snare drum and bass drum sound from laun wood shells than it would be to get a deep, resonant tom tom sound -a la most modern tom toms.