A few years ago I saw a drum kit on Craig’s List that I knew was old by the looks. What really interested me was the old ride cymbal. I purchased the kit and upon examination I realize they were painted three times and the badge was covered. I hadn’t heard about Stewart drums but some of the hardware had the Pearl name. Having done some research on Vintage Drum Forum and other sites on the web I realized this Stewart set may be the oldest pictured. The kit was mounted with home made stands, a bass pedal, snare stand, high hat stand and one old cymbal. The high had cymbals were Pearl CB-300’s and some newer cymbals that were modern brass low budget junk.
The old cymbal was cleaned and placed on this forum for identification and got some responses but none fit. It seemed to age like B20 bronze and is machine hammered with no lathing. It sounds pretty good so it’s a keeper.
Now to the drums:
The badge says “Stewart – Made in Japan”. The oval badge aluminum foil may be late 1950s according to the web. The shell construction is thin 3-ply plywood; about 1/8” thick and all drums are re-ringed to support the thin walls. The hardware is pitted but cleaning brightened the finish and the antique description would be fair. All heads were replaced with Remo Ambassador heads except for the front bass drum head that was original but in playing condition.
The dimensions are: (Demensions updated Dec 3 and are nominal)
22”x14” Bass* - Wood Hoops*
13”x9” Tom-tom
16”x14+” Floor tom*
14”x5” Snare
The kit was restored with all original components except for the replacement of the snare rims and the tom bottoms that were missing and missing floor tom lugs. The pearl finish was lightened but then died to the yellowing. There are still two missing floor tom tension rods but these and the tom holder can be found on Ebay. No painting or treatment of the shells was done with the exception of the floor tom. It was disaster and looked like someone spilled a drink on it and damaged the upper part of the shell where some of the lugs tore through. I did my best to fill holes and paint the inner shell to stiffen it up.
Now the kit looks great for this age! The set will go on Ebay for someone’s Christmas as soon as I get a value. Would someone help me on the age and value of this set?
I found and saved the following on this forum in 2009 but could not find it again:
Re: Early 1960's Stewart
What is the shell construction? Are they thin, or a thicker looking shell? If they are really thin, almost looking like single ply, it would typically indicate 67 or earlier, like early 67 and before. If they are the thicker, 6 ply shells, they are 67 or later. That is the only real test of time we have. It seems for Star that the switch to the 6 ply, heavier shells came late spring of 67. Anything 3 ply is before that time. And in my opinion these are the better, more desirably shells. I really like these 3 ply drums, they have a deep, resounding resonance that no other drums have.
And when they are tweaked a bit, by sanding the interiors to a 220 grit and then a coat of either tung oil or lacquer, per Rogers of the early 60s. The reason I like the lacquer is simply this: If Rogers thought it was the perfect treatment for the interior of the wood Dynasonic, it has to have a great quality, as that is aguably one of the most highly collectibly drums on this rock.
