Here are a couple more pictures.

Nice job dude. Looks awesome! Bowing

Adam

Great work, and yes, it is a lot of work to re-do these drums. You are also correct in the 80/25 thing...sometimes even better than 80%.

Thanks guys! I have already fallen in love with this kit, I'm glad someone else likes it too.

I recorded a comparison of this kit and my WFL kit. I wanted to see what the two would sound like with the exact same setup. Check it out:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rttkRuMxgG8[/ame]

I got this snare for $1 plus shipping on ebay. I'm not sure if I'll pair it with this kit or not, but I thought it would be fun regardless. I changed the batter head (the old one was a little worn out), and ordered a new reso head and snare wires. The old, possibly original, reso isn't horrible though. After snipping off 2 loose snare wires, those aren't that bad either. I might just save the new stuff for the next project.

Here's what I need some clarification on: this drum set was made by Star, right? I got a snare that matches the Star (Apollo) catalogs for this era. But when I took the lugs off, they say Pearl inside. When I looked at the Pearl catalogs, this looks just like their 1969 stuff. But I couldn't find this wrap in the Pearl catalogs. So did the two companies just make stuff that looked the same or did Star buy parts from Pearl?

Anyway, here are some before and after pictures.

Beautiful job potsy24. Love the video comparison and they sound great. It reminds me of a kit I saw on eBay looking up drum wrap.

Thanks a lot man. Yeah, I remember seeing those. I really got the inspiration from pellisdrums.com. That guy makes some great looking drums.

Can anyone provide some info on the snare? Pearl, Star, what is this thing?

Potsy, the snare you picked up from ebay was made by Pearl. The Pearl Soundking copy lugs are slightly different than the Star Soundking copies. The Pearl ones have the robust frame around the lug. They're pretty easy to spot. Also, the muffler knob design and strainer are Pearl types as well.

Sometime around the early 70s, many of the stencil names previously used by Star were used on Pearl made drums. So, for instance, most Apollo drums that we see are the Star made black oval badge ("World's Finest Quality") variety, however, when you get to the early 70s, Pearl started making the Apollo badged drums (with a slightly different badge) with their parts. It gets sort of confusing, I know.

Looking at the Pearl catalog pages your drum could have been made as early as 1968, based on the lugs and strainer.

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/my_collection/literature/pearl/1968-pearl-catalog-11.jpg

My opinion is that these are some of the better made MIJ snare drums. The hardware is certainly better on these (somewhat) later Pearls than on the Star drums. If you compare a lug on this snare to a lug on one of your Star toms, you'll see what I mean. The strainer on your snare should be pretty functional too, if it's in ok shape and is set up correctly.

Great job cleaning it up, by the way. Your 'after' pics really showed the drum come to life! What do you think of the sound so far?

Thanks for all the info! I didn't know that the Star stencils switched over to Pearl. You're right about the difference in the quality of the lugs. The strainer is completely functional, as is the muffler. Both work well with plenty of room for adjustment. I'm really surprised with the sound of this drum. It has a nice warmth to it and the snare beds were done well, so there is really no unwanted buzz. Playing it by itself, I thought it sounded best with the muffler just barely touching the head. But when I set it up with a kit I disengaged the muffler pretty much right away. I still haven't changed the reso head or snare wires.

Thanks for the thumbs up on the cleaning. I had to get a little aggressive on the rims. I got a lot of the surface rust off with a buffing wheel on a bench grinder, but had to go at it with some steel wool on parts. I know, no steel wool, but slightly dull is better than rust. Overall I'm happy with the turnout. The wrap is pretty cool, but its hard to capture the sparkle on camera. I wasn't even sure it was a sparkle wrap from the pictures on ebay. I don't think the seller knew either, they just called it dark blue.