Picked up this old snare on CL recently and I've been trying to figure out what it is. No badges, but I suspect it's a 1960's era MIJ. Any help in determining the brand or year would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Your suspicions are correct..MIJ snare drum from mid 60's, probably Pearl stencil..

Thanks! There seems to be a good amount of residue around the air vent so it might have been a stencil with a larger badge like Maestro but there's no way to tell.

Those are usually the drums with cast rims and 1/4-20 rods.

the pics are kind of small but the lugs and interior looks like Hoshino
But not the Hoshino associated with Star (the other Hoshino)
The large amount of residue around the air vent is also consistent
Not all but many of the badges Hoshino applied
were not metal but some sort of thin plasticized foil requiring an adhesive to keep them in place

My Hoshino made Kimberly kit comes to mind
I have a few random Hoshino made Decca drums built that way also

Thank you so much for your post, Kenwood. I believe I've looked online at every brand of MIJ snares EXCEPT Hoshino.

I think you nailed it. http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/imag...ies/bowing.gif


Photos of your Kimberly or Decca drums?

Hello Frankenkit
here is a few seller's pics of the Kimberly kit
the second being a closer pic of the badge (sticker) on the floor tom

and also a pic I took of my own Frankenkit
Decca tom standing in for a missing psychedelic lava pearl drum
also the lugs on the Kimberly kit add to some confusion and differing opinions
They look very much like Star but do not mate with Star rods
they are certainly a style that is not seen very often on the Hoshino kits

Save for only the snare drum ..which has lugs that I believe to be the same as yours
Most often on the Hoshino kits they stuck with two styles of lugs

One style would be like those on the Decca tom ..the bass drum floor tom and mounted toms would have that style while the matching lugs for the snare drum would be like those on my Kimberly and your snare drums

Here on the Kimberly kit there is what I believe to be a factory mis-match
between the bass and tom lugs and the snare drum lugs

The other lug style Hoshino used pretty often
and tended to show up on slightly higher grade kits they produced
seen here on this Tiger's eye Hoshino made "Matador" kit
a style where as the snare drum lugs resembled very closely those on at least some Roger's dynasonic snares
and some of the tower model drums as well

the bass and tom lugs carry the same ridge styling
but as can hopefully be seen, round out at the bottom more like the Star lugs do

There are to my knowledge, two variations of this style lug casing
the first generation are those pictured on the tiger eye kit

A newer variation shows the same styling in a slightly slimmer casting

Hello again Frankenkit

I was looking all over my hard drive for these additional pics
The first pic shows my Tiger sparkle (for lack of the proper name)kit
in the other pic showing a bunch of random orphan drums all piled up
you will note the tiger sparkle snare drum in the pile

Both pics show Hoshino made drums using the same color wrap
However the main rig uses one style of the Hoshino lugs
while the orphaned snare drum (purchased from a totally different source)is fitted with the other style

which again I believe is the same as those on your snare drum

The remaining pics show a recently purchased Hoshino snare in the tiger eye wrap
I needed this snare to complete the above pictured Hoshino made Matador kit

Coincidentally the snare drum originally wore a Kimberly badge (sticker)
I carefully removed it and will apply it to restore the one missing from the mounted tom on my Kimberly kit
note the lugs on this tiger eye snare
are those I tried to describe above, being similar in appearance to the Roger's drum lugs
and quite happily for me, are the exact match needed for the Matador drums

What a nice collection! That psychedelic lava pearl finish is awesome. Love that tiger-eye wrap, too. Those old 60's MIJ kits may have not been the best made but they sure had the coolest looks.

Here is my own beloved Frankenkit. 60's Kent bass drum (unwrapped by the previous owner), Radio King toms with my old Ludwig snare.

Hello again and Thanks Frankenkit
I like your drums
I have an old Slingerland tom with those lugs
It was either a concert style tom which is maybe not so likely
or it had a tacked on calfskin on the resonant side
someone covered the drum with black velvet material so hard to tell
It has the single flange hoop with the clips on the batter head

The tom mount which attaches to the bass drum hoop is bolted right to the tom shell
It is rusty but all there