lets see her please?Cool1

Chances are if the interiors are painted, it is the falkatta shells. Not certain of this, but in the painted shells, they tend to be lower end, wide-grain brittle woods in an attempt to close the grain and make the surface more reflective for sound.

In the end, all they really needed to do is sand and seal them with lacquer. It would have made for a better sound surface, and the drums would have lasted and sounded much more like the American drums they were trying to emulate. This goes for all MIJ shells, not just Yamaha.

Nope, every indication they are tight-grain, probably Birch inner and outer plies, maybe a central ply of birch with gumwood or whatever on the 2nd and 4th plies. The hardware is exactly like later Tour Custom except for the bass spurs which are telescoping, and the rack tom mount is a clip type. Here's some pictures:

Here's another pic of an inner ply, along with a pic of the 3 drums without hoops/heads (all tension rods except bass rods are original and chrome looks much better-quality than other luan Japanese sets I've ever seen) and a pic of a bearing edge, which appears to be a Gretsch ripoff, looks like a 30 degree edge with slight roundover:

Also, the exteriors may have been stained, interestingly they are the color of Yamaha's later tan-stained Birch drums. I'm assuming they're stained by the owner because the badges are gone and the grommets are bent and overhanging a bit.. That first picture of the interior shows a missing lug screw, it's the only one, all the rest of the lugs screws are there and appear original, no drills, 2 tom mufflers are inside as are the mounting screws but the controls and backing nuts for the controls are gone.

The floor tom legs are non-original, the mounts look like 70s Slingerland FT mounts and their screw holes match the original yamaha. The BD has the original cymbal L-arm mount on it but no wing set screw. Some scratches and head wear, bearing edges appear in good shape, and I'm anxious to tune them up and play them. I removed the tape and bathrobe belt that was muffling the bass head, this was tuned to thud, not sing, but I'll bet they will sing! The only indication they were Yamahas was there was a thin Yamaha cymbal stand that held the tom clip mount post, which is a hex-shaped rod. It was a Yamaha Japan stand and I'm thinking it may or may not be era correct. This appears to be just before transitioning into the later Recording Custom series?

BTW, Jonnistix, Yamaha continued to stain the interior woods of their drums throughout the late 70s and into the 80s, from the several Recording Custom and Tour Custom lacquer sets I've observed over the years.

I've owned and observed many Japan-made luan sets. I had an Apollo set a few months ago, nice stury thick shells, also painted gray but they were indeed the aforementioned rougher wood on the inner ply, and the hardware quality wasn't even in the same solar system as these Yammies. As you can see by the bearing edge pics this drum the 2nd and 4th plies are more porous wood (mahogany?) What ply makeup was the early Tour series? I know it was Birch outer/inner and other woods sandwiched. Maybe the same as these. Sorry for the multiple posts, I should have searched ply makeup Yamaha Tour series.

Great Info! Thanks...I love Yammies, my brother was one of those drummers that was a;ways l;ooking for bigger and better, and he started out on the obligatory Pearl, then traded every 2 or 3 months it seems. He had a Tour Custom at at one time, and they sounded the best of all the sets he ever had, except one set of early 60s Luds, and to me they sounded a little more resonant than the Yammies, but the Yammies had a different tone that worked more for him, as he was a heavy hitter, and rarely did we need to mic him, even his cymbals...just loud!

Thanks for the kind words.. I set them up and here's a couple of pictures.. I wiped the exteriors with some Martin guitar polish and replaced the non-original bass t-rods because they were too long and were poking into the back end of the lugs. They're very nice-sounding indeed. Nice for some funky beats! They do remind me of Gretsch but I measured and believe the edges to be 45 degree.. I just kept the same heads on them. But one of the SLingy ft leg mounts had stripped.. Interestingly I've had a Slingly FT leg mount in my parts pile for years, waiting for the moment. I also put a straight leg on one of the sides, it just seemed to fit better than the 3rd leg (all three were non-original). THey've got really good tone.. Also the last picture shows the part of the yamaha stand that holds a clip mount that has a ball-socket tilting mechanism similar to Yamaha's later plastic ball-socket tilters, and the side of the rack tom and bass drum. Alas, no other arm came with the bd rail..

BTW I'm not surprised the Yammies your brother had sounded good, they seem to reward the player who hits them harder with even better tone and projection. That must have been cool to watch your brother play, I remember watching a friend of mine's brother play the drums, he had a 60s Ludwig Ringo set (it was in the 60s or early 70s, we were young) and it was such an impression to hear someone play drums live in his bedroom. so much volume and acoustic power! Trying not to take that for granted.. I think we must be addicted to the sound of drums to really enjoy playing and hearing them.

I've been addicted to them since the early 60s...He stareted playing in the 70s, around 75, I think. He had a 75-76 Acro, as did most drummers our age. I just sold mine, and got a helluva a return, considering it was basically free. It came with a set of Mahog Cortex monsters. I sold it all off and kept the Acro. I needed a little cash, and since all of my MIJ snares are impossible to replace,. I let the Acro go, I can grab another Acro any time. So, I get 75 cash, a 20" ProSonix Sabian ride, 8-10-12 inch splashes, one Sabian, the others Wuhan, a 60s 14" Star snare, missing the strainer and wires and a 13" WorldMax snare that is about to become a project, as it has the cheap basswood shell and is in need of the masters touch.

Anyway, I took the Star snare and stripped it to the bare shell, applied a curly maple veneer outer, and a copper colored lacquer with multiple colors of super fine glitter embedded in it, a new Pearl P-85 style strainer and the matching butt, new Evans Hazy med and an Ambassador topside, new wires and this girl sings like no other. It is a strange, not supposed to be shell, 5 ply with re-rings, so it has to be something in the 66-68 era as the transition from 3 thin ply shells to the 6 ply shells around that time. I am thinking about letting it go to someone here, as I do make some really nice snares and would like to see this one giggong and getting on a record...it sounds that good, to me anyway, as it is a different sound than you would expect.

The Yamaha catalogue I used to have from 1977 had two lines,900,the more expensive line, had the birch shells and came in a natural stain or piano black laquer,the less expensive line 700 I think, came in white or a natural stain that looked like pounders kit,yamaha pitched a mix and match component idea with the natural stain common to both lines,and I think the wood used on the less expensive ones outer ply was called camellia,it looked alot like pounders kit,the grain was tighter than birch and more uniform. The lugs on both lines looked like the tailight style seen on both the kits in this thread.