I,ve come across a few sets and the owners were always in a hurry to get rid of them,because they sounded very thin.You cant blame Pearl though,at least they weree trying to offer something different.

Hmm, thin. By that I assume you mean lacking sustain or low end? Is that something that can be remedied with more modern head choices? I've found a set for a reasonable price, $200, in sound shape with a strong patina, but they need new heads anyway. I only found one mention about them on the web, which says they were Mahogany, but I don't know if that's true or not.

The President Series was constructed from "plastic fiber" (fiberglass) -- the forerunner to Pearl's later all-fiberglass shell series in the 1970s.

In fact, you can go to Pearl's website and download a 1969 catalog PDF that shows a President Series kit in Marine Pearl

I saw that too, but these pre-date the fiberglass ones, the logos are different as well. These are wood, 3 plys I think, with a silver sparkle wrap finish.

Well, the deal is done. Should be an interesting project. I'll decide what heads to buy after I check them out completely. Any suggestions?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=003&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=130079942602&rd=1&rd=1

I think you got these for a fair price. I was just reading about the president's series and someone said up to $300 australian would be fair for this beat up president's series they came across. So that would be about $150 american but this kit is in much better condition so $200 seems fair.

First off, congrats on the drum set! Very cool!

As for the heads, for a nice warm vintage sound, I recommend Aquarian's Vintage series.

The Series can be broken down into two styles: American Vintage and Modern Vintage. American Vintage heads have a slightly larger diameter to easily slip over vintage shells. The Modern Vintage heads, as their name implies, are made for drummers looking to get a more vintage sound out of their modern sets. Both are made to reproduce the sound of calf-skin heads.

I've used both on my vintage drums, and haven't noticed a difference with fitting or tone — they both work and sound great!

You can get the full skinny here:

http://www.aquariandrumheads.com/products/display.asp?id=9

It should be here tomorrow, via UPS. I'll post better pictures as soon as I can remember how.

I was thinking of getting all Aquarian heads, I've had really good luck with them in the past. I'll check out the Vintage Series, but I was thinking of the Studio-X on the toms, and Super Kick Two for the bass. I'm sure I've got plenty of work before I need to decide on heads.

Well, hopefully here is a few pictures. They are in worse condition than I thought, gonna be a lot of work. Most of the hardware is good, but the shells are pretty rough. I raised a few questions about the wrap in the restoration section.