Hi, if you got everything pictured for 150 then you did very good in my oppinion. Too bad the tom mount has been changed because the wrap looks nice in the pictures. I doubt if there will be any date stamped but the mij experts on this formn will date it pretty close I bet.

Nice score, good going and good luck to ya!

Jeff C

Well, I don't want to deceive - I got the shells and the snare for $150...

All the other stuff pictured is mine... sorry :) I just felt like setting it all up before snapping the photos!

Welcome!

Nice score! It is indeed a Star kit. Early-ish to mid 60s. Can you get me a shot of the interior of any of the shells? That would help wit the time break. In mid-late 67 they changed the shells from thin 3 ply with re-rings to 6 and/or 9 ply with a silver or grey interior lacquer. If they are the 3 ply shells, running single ply heads will be your best bet. If you are a heavy hitter, you may want to learn some finesse as these old tubs sound best when played a little less aggressively than more. They will have a very deep tone and will likely surprise you with the amount of resonance. Is the snare 6 or 8 lug? If 8, you will find it to be a very good sound, once you learn it's nuances.

I prefer Aquarian Z-100 coated heads for all my 3 ply Star shells as they play nicely and are relatively inexpensive. I run an Evans EQ1 single ply on the bass batter and the original reso, but since it had been used as a batter and was in less than pristine condition, I washed it with soap and water and lightly scrubbed away the years of crud with a Scotch-Brite and then I spray painted it. No, I'm not a loon....it has the resonant qualities of a calfskin now. I use Rustoleum Ivory and it took an entire can. It does not look like some hack, I do top-notch restorations on MIJ drums.

Anyway, there are other tricks to help you get them singing like you can't believe and I am available to help you get them in tip-top order.

Parts are not hard to find, just make a list and contact member Mikey777. He is our resident, and likely one of the largest in the world, used parts guy.

One of my tricks is to sand the interiors to a 100 grit then brush on a couple of coats of lacquer, NOT poly. Lacquer is made from natural by-products and seals the wood, still allowing it to breath. If you use poly, it will seal the wood too, but more like encasing it in plastic and you don't want your drums to sound like a plastic tub, so stick to lacquer. It also helps the sound to project a little better without loss of sonic quality and the deep, rich resonant tones of these old babies. It's a bit of work, but in the end, well worth the effort.

Cheers, and welcome to the wonderful, whacky world of vintage MIJ collecting and restoration. Don't let the drum snobs get to you, they know not what they miss in pure, un-adulterated, joyful noise!

I gotta say there's something incredibly unattractive about super heavy double braced hardware with vintage kits. This kits deserve super light single braced vintage cymbal stands and vintage cymbals. That tom mount looks horrific to me....probably made the shell 50 per cent heavier lol.

I really, really hate heavy hardware as it is ugly to me and unecesarrily heavy. It's much easier to work with the old light-weight stands and they're much prettier in my opinion.

On the other hand, the drums look beautiful and I think you did fairly well for yourself..... 150? Not great not bad. Do these shells have re-rings? Thanks for sharing.

Nice little set you have.Yes its a Star made set..You are lucky that no one redrilled the mounted tom by adding the wrong tom arm..Thanks Jonnistix yes i do have the right tom mount arm for you set.All you have to be is send me a P/M and we will work out a deal..Mikey

I thought it was a blue badge Zim-gar at first glance.Have not seen yours before,but its a beauty.

Hello, yes... I'm a closet MIJ addict! And You'll have gobs of fun with those!

I wouldn't re-wrap that kit, just loose the 'Rims' mount and talk to Mikey about the center post. At least the fellow that did the 'improvements' left the original hardware on the rack tom.

You did good on the price. Getting the matching snare is an oddity half (or more) of the time.

Pleased to meet you!

Well thanks guys :)

I do have some interior shots but they're from the eBay auction, so I didn't take them but:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140658227851?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2648#ht_660wt_1328

Definitely read the auction details; he described it pretty accurately.. (I'm sure some of you have already seen it too!)

I am planning on using either ambassador or emperor heads on this anyway (or the other brand-equivalents). Right now its got an emperor on the floor tom and an ambassador on the mounted tom. The snare is a Magnum; Taiwan-made drum. Never heard of it. 8 lugs. It doesn't match the kit but hey, it's another snare to use. I haven't even gone off on a tangent yet with snare drums! That's probably coming soon (great; yet another obsession to make my wife happy!) I could definitely take recommendations on what kind of snare would match this kit....

I agree with you 100% although for the time being, I want to play it and for now, that's what I have. I am going to remove that god-awful tom mount though and put on the correct rail-type mount or whatever they used originally. I got it adjusted enough to work, but being a lefty the drum is all crooked etc. just to get it in position! So yeah, that's part of my next hunt...

Nice find.

As far as I can see, there was no rail consolette type of a tom mount mounted earlier (in this case normally 4 holes can be seen on the bass drum) - so it's easy to replace that tom bracket. Attached you'll so what most probably was the genuine mount type.

2 reasons - NOT ! - to do a replacement of the rim mount:

- the rim produces much more decay to the rack tom. It may happen that your rack tom will sound 'choked' if you replace it with a more genuine 'slip on' bracket.

- The top head at the rack tom is placed higher in this configuration than with original hardware: an important point - if your sitting position is not too low.

Both Ambas or Emporers should work well with the toms (but only Ambas on the reso side).

Conc. the snare drum: Magnum is a low budget brand here in Europe.

Ralf