Hi Blairn!

During the 1971-1984 when I'd active drumming, to be honest, I met nothing Paiste/Zildjian face to face. That cymbals were in private hands only by way which Dule described - changing "cookware" to real cymbals during rarely concert tour of big soviet orchestras.:), or as a presents from friends who had a tourist trips.

More accessible cymbals were Premier's Zyn & Super Zyn with Royal Ace snare or Ludwig same line - and only in Moscow and St.Ptb, because they were purchased for symphony orchestras, big bands, folk teams and culture's centers, similar as Premier's full kits.

It was a every soviet drummer's dream.

But I have to say that "fritz" TROWA & chech AMATI were not worse in those years - it's my absolutely firm opinion.

P.S.:

1. ZIL - it's a brand of soviet government car...:D

2. One of the best soviet rock drummers Yuri Fokin suddenly left the drumming, jumped deep into religion and emigrated to USA at the end of 70' and live in San Francisco now - he have more much stories about those soviet musical era. He was an brilliant talant drummer - at Feb.2007 and also spring 2010 he was invited in Moscow with to take a part in 40-jubilee's concert of rock-group "The Flowers" with other last members of this group which lives in USA now, where he play drums a first time for last 30 years...:)

His drumming "Johnny be Goode" accessible on his site http://www.yuritania.com

Rgds,

George.

just last weekend, I had a discussion with a Russian born composer outside the Music Gallery in Toronto. i asked him about this and it turns out that he was a punk musician in the 80's in S.U; started playing on the drums.=====mostly what he saw were Amatis and some Trowa and Tacton. surprisingly, he didn't seem to know about the Russian made drums!

finally a mystery has been solved, George. thank you , thank you George.----about 4 years ago, I bought a snare and stand on ebay for 49.00. it arrived and ----the stand is gorgeous; heavy, big rubber feet, lots of leverage on the wing bolts but weirdly-----acme threads on even some of the smaller bolts.(for those of you who don't know----acme is a flat topped type of thread that was designed to take extreme load and is used in such applications as worm threads on presses etc. they are highly durable and sustain repeated use without stripping. they are the Royalty of threads; must be machined ,rather than cut. if you have ever had the un-honour of trying to get a MIJ drum kit up and running you will know about threads. clearly the thread was not invented in Japan(still hasn't been).

so the drum is a 4 1/2 x 14 is made of galvanized steel, has cast aluminum lugs , throwoff and butt but has weird Ludwig style triple flanged nickel plated hoops. the snares are silk cord/copper wound and attach separately. everything about this drum says 1940's or earlier except those hoops. it has very short headed slot screws for t-rods. the wrap is a very hard material---- salmon pink pearl and it has a very nicely built muffler.there is heavy reliance on cast aluminum. the drum has a very hollow metallic sound (can be muffled)but is interesting, unique and plays really nicely.it is a bit military in overall effect.

from your pictures , it looks like the drum is a slightly deeper version of the green snare. same lugs, same stand. do you know the shell formulation of those drums?

Another mystery solved!And George thank you again!Couple of months back,I had a thread about some shells I had been ofered and I passed it.Stupid!I had a photos off wrap striped shells and lugs and snare drum.And this is it,it is Russian Epoimi!It was 22-13-18 with re-rings!

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EASY VAPE BOX

And few more photos

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Kitchen Measures

Thank you for the evaluation, Calfskin.

I'm always enjoying reading your posts about german drums for a long-long time even before my logging in VDF.

So, on first view, described snare is not soviet. There were no aluminium drum parts constructions - heavy Zn/Al/Cu combine alloy only (based Zn + some adding Al+Cu). I've an assumption that it maybe Poland's POLMUZ, but I not fully sure.

Soviet drum shells usually made from whole good type of birch plywood - light aviation purposed, and rare ply-maple and ply-beech.

Snares kinds - wrapped birch; wrapped galvanosteel (rare); non-wrapped polished special oxided Al; chrom coated steel or stainless steel also.

More details about EPOIMI snares I'll describe in my next story...wait pls...:)

Oh, ye-es-ss!

Dule, You're right absolutely - it's real disassembly EPOIMI set from different semi-last modifications.

First complectations were - 20" bass drum; 12" tom and 14" tom-bass. But sizes was not convenient - as a Premier, its had a mm-dimensions and drummers couldn't use a standard drumheads: soviet, Premier or self-made only.

Lugs with one bolt fixing, it hadn't swim-nuts - thread was directly in lug's body.

The next generation was 22" BD + 12" tom-alt + 13" tom-tenor + 18" FT.

But the black metal plate on pic and unknown black mount stand - not from kit: it looks like something strange tools from car service...:)

Hi ! Greetings from Poland .I've finally found my drums real brand thanx to You ,I have EPOIMI drum set ,i thought its trowa or something but now when i saw those pictures Im sure ,Im not sure about the year they've been made ,Could someone help me identify the year ? i can post pictures ,I've tear off the veneer and I've started to restore the set ,Do you think it could be a nice vintage or it's just old crap ? if someone could help me i can post those pictures soon, and btw sorry for my english if something's wrong

Hi, Diabeu and welcome to VDF!

I'll can help you to identify more correctly a year of kit after your's pix posting.

If somebody have a good hands - most kinds of drums can be restored to good condition and pretty sound.

Now I still haven't a lot of time to complete the whole story about EPOIMI drums.

George.

http://bumfight.fotosik.pl/albumy/813180.html

This is my drum album. All cymbals and crash cymbal stands are not from orginal epoimi set. There are some new remo drum heads on snare and bass drum. Set is 20'' BD 12'' 13'' TT 14'' FT 14'' S ,there is orginal hi hat stand and cymbal stand for ride and snare drum ,Snare is made off steel and the set was original in wine red color(veneer). What Could You tell me about it ? What kind of wood it is ? Tnx for Your time and help ,BTW Id love to hear the rest of Your epoimi story PS. I just recive new drum from polish auction portal ,Its 20'' Bass Drumm Rimmel ,I dont know about it too much too but I think its vintage

Man... I can't figure out a thing on this thread... Those last pictures were all in Polish! Hmmmm Lame

This thread is far too cool. I've had no idea about any of these old Eastern Block kits, but they sure look sweet (kinda). Some of the hardware looks iffy... but then from what I've read in this thread, metal for drum hardware was not at the top of the list of priority items during the Soviet period. Did anyone ever attempt to export these kits into the West at the time? Would they have been competitive?