Sweet! Thanks for thatCool1

We got a 16 inch floor tom! Whoo-Hooooo!!!

Heads match the theme running through this kit.

Sound - Boooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

So far so good on the kit. I'm liking the looks of it. The chrome is near flawless. The finish has natural oak ridges and such ... odd. I've got a Mahogany finish kit that has no texture. I oiled up the other kit and did a side by side. I'm thinking there's some differences here. The inside ply is very very different. Wouldn't have noticed that had I not done this. Interesting.

Here's a few shots of the insides of the basses. Very strange to my eyes. The forum had concluded that the Mahogany finish kit was maple/poplar/maple. I'm not 100% now. Looks very different.

The third picture from the left looks like maple with some birdseye figure to me. If either one were mahogony, I would think it would appear "rougher"...

African Mahogany does not appear rough. It's actuall quite beautiful. Check the pearl site to pull up a pic of the African Mahogany kits. Or check my YouTube site. There are several videos there of one of my AM kits. The finish inside and out is fabulous.

Michael, both interiors are maple. The third from the left, it is birds eye grained maple. The exterior ply on the other that is stained in mahogany, it could very well be a thin veneer of AM. I dunno, ask lonecomic, he was there building them.

Pretty much completed this one. Still need a few pieces...two dampeners, three floor tom mount t's, one long thick spur rod, and one single freekin' bass T-Rod. Those are Rogers T's on the floor tom leg mounts. Got a kick out of that. Set it up (as in - done!).

Turned out pretty well. Bass sounds amazing. DEEP boom with nice sustain. 13 and 16 sound ever so nice. The 12 inch tom sounds better than the 13 or the 16. One of those strange hand built quirks, I guess.

I'll enjoy playing this one for a bit.

I think what he meant by rough would better be defined as grainy. Those drums of yours are maple, you can tell by the way it took the stain. If they were mahogany the stain would be more consistent, more even.

Doiiihh! Ok. Got it. Yeah. Man, I totally misread that one.

The thing about the AM stuff is it does take the stain really well. I had a Pearl kit and it was beautiful and deep grained. I'm thinking that the outer ply of AM is very nice compared with other plies. So ... I'm just not 100 percent on this. It really does have a look that resembles my old kit. It has those little black thin flecks like AF should have.

I'm speaking of the outer ply here.

I honestly don't know. It most likely is Maple, as that would have been the standard. But dang, it sure is dark all the way through the ply. It's probably something that I want it to be and so I'm not able to let it rest. I'm gonna just put it aside again and think on other things. It's healthier.

Ok. So I'm all sweaty and winded. I just played this kit for about an hour (prior to that last post).

All I can say is ... [SIZE=1]wow[/SIZE].

I spent some time tweaking and adjusting.

This kit has got such a natural round woody warmth to it ... it honestly shocked me. I wasn't expecting it. I played one song after another and just couldn't stop. I will say, I don't like the SoundKing COB with this particular kit. I love the snare, just not with this one. This thing needs a nice late 70's Slingerland 5 ply maple 6.5 or 7 inch deep snare. That would really work well.

I'm gonna hang on to this one for a bit. Didn't plan on that. Honestly thought I would sell it quick. If the 68 Blue Agate plays this nicely, I'm going to be an even happier man than I already am.