These are U.S.Mercury badged, Sonor cloned drums by Star

in the fibre gold pearl (bamboo like)

it started with just the snare, my New Jersey seller for it,

put me on to a second seller in Pennsylvania for the bass and toms.

the original U.S.Mercury resonant head was intact,

but filthy and in need of some work to make presentable

so the smiley face head was just while the original was being cleaned up

I originally posted about this LaBoz kit in mid-April. It's now approaching mid-May and the kit is sort of on its way. Shortly after purchase, this music store had an incident with a gun-wielding customer resulting from an argument between himself and another customer. Police came in and it lead to a lot of disruption for the shop. Then there was a long interval as they tried to figure out the best way to ship the whole business for reasonable $$ because they discovered they had the snare drum, as well. In any event, it finally left the shop on Friday bound for Florida (billing address). It was supposed to go to Maine (actual shipping address)! Trying to deal with that now.electricit

Just got confirmation the LaBoz shipment was redirected to Maine!! Should arrive this week. Hope to have a look at it in July.

LaBoz successfully delivered to Maine. Hoping to see them in July. Will update.

This kit for the most part at least, was never badged

but is built by Hoshino Kougyou

the Marquis badged snare came along first and only cost me a measly five dollars

the bass and toms came along via Craig's list some years later

I love the weird wrap but have no idea what it is called?

I refer to it as black/gold tiger sparkle

Hoshino K used two main styles of lugs on their builds

the snare drum has one style the bass and toms have the other

the hole spacing is the same between the two styles on the bass drums and toms

but they unfortunately used two different spacings with regard to the snare drums

so a 100% match could not be achieved

Nice wrap. Cool set.

On the lugs and spacing issue, are you saying lugs exist for snare drums that look the same as you bass and tom lugs, but that the spacing of the holes on the snare is different from the snare they built with the matching lugs?

Dan yes the lugs on the snare drum I have

match the snare drum pictured here in the red sparkle

the snare drum pictured in the tiger sparkle

has the correct lugs to match the rest of my kit

the lugs on it have a larger hole spacing than do the red sparkle snare

so color-wise my drums all match but lug-wise they are mismatched

the bass drum and tom lugs are interchangeable between the two styles

but for whatever reason the corresponding lugs for the two separate styles for the snare drums

have different hole spacings so I could not switch them out for a closer match on my group

Not sure if I ever posted these under this topic...probably did, though! Anyway, it's an early 60's Crown 3pc, wrapped in a "blue tiger sparkle". You have to be up close to see that there are crushed glass pieces in the finish. An odd finish, just like that black/gold tiger sparkle on Kenwood's kit!

-Mark

The MIJ's had some great finishes.

Mark these Crown badged drums by Hoshino Kougyou

are sort of the same color with a different pattern

I initially found only the ten lug bass drum and three toms (all eight lug)

I looked for years for a matching snare drum

when I finally did find one

I had to buy this entire second identical kit in order to get it

so I still need a darned snare for the original kit not pictured