Imperial Star Saturn 7 - Page 1 - Vintage Drum Forum

Hi all...this is a nice forum you guys have going! This is my first post...so here goes...

I have a mid-seventies??...Imperial Star, from catalogues I've looked at it appears to be a Saturn 7. The kit also has two smaller toms, but these are not Tama...seem to be made from some sort of acrylic material, they have completely different lugs. The full size of the kit is....14x24 kick, 10,12,13,14,15,16 concert toms, 18 floor tom and 14x5 king beat snare. The tom mounts are a horrible slot an rail system that doesn't allow for any independent movement between the two toms. The finish is white.

In 1998 I moved from Australia to Ireland and 7 years later I had my parents ship out the kit. Last year I decided it needed a face lift and removed the white wrap ( it was pretty shot ) sanded back the shells and stained an laquered them. I am currently adding resonant heads to the 13 14 15 rack toms and converting the 16 tom to a floor tom. I am also going to lose the mounting system and go for something functional.

My question to you good folk is...any old pics of concert tom kits usually shows them with cs black dot heads, presumably to cut sustain?? This kit always had them, in fact its the only heads I've used. Any recomendations for when the renovations are complete? Batter and Resonant.....our band plays mostly rock music, and as a bricklayer by day I guess I'm pretty heavy handed!!! Any thoughts appreciated!!!!

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Sounds like you obviously have a mixed kit there. Old Imperialstars are cool drums...they are one of the models which made Tamas reputation back then.

Given that they were already concert toms, there isn't much need to "cut" back on sustain...their lack of res head already is curtailing the resonance and accenting the attack.

IMHO, dotted heads are not a great choice for concert toms. I assume you are playing rock/loud ? Since you are adding res heads, too...try different batters.

Res side heads stick to clear Diplomats or maybe Evans G1 clears.

Batter side, stay away from Pinstripes and cleardots. Try Aquarian Studios (with the black ring along the circumference) or Focus X's. Or maybe Evans MX Frosteds or EC2's.

If you wanted to try coateds, I'd suggest Emperors or Fiberskyns.

A favorite bass head around these parts are the Aquarian SuperKicks...SK1, 2, or 3. They are...um...kick#ss.

Post some pics of the kit when you can.

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