After a polish

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f225/dolphinlee/closeup.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f225/dolphinlee/missingmuff2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f225/dolphinlee/nicepic.jpg[/IMG]

Oh yeah! Cleaned up real good.

That's a nice drum. I did not know that Japanese stencil type kits came with 10 luggers.

Very nice and yeah... she cleaned up great!

I have a no-name 10 lug chrome over steel snare which is awaiting a spit and polish session as well. It's likely a late 70's early 80's Pearl which I bought used around 1994. I beat the snot out of that drum, gigging pretty much every weekend over a 4 year period and toting it around without a case. It NEVER failed on me or caused me any grief. Built as a tank!

So tell me again why japanese drums get such a bad rap? ;)

Yeah, I'm glad I took the "befores", it puts the "afters" into perspective. It took about two hours of Brasso and cotton balls, dis and re assembly, but it may have extended the snares life by several years, and prevented more serious damage ensuing.

Wouldn't it be nice to have the kit to match?But this snare was the only Boston drum I ever saw in Melbourne, or anywhere for that matter, until I saw some pics on this site of a Boston kit. That kit was in a grey satin finish, I'd prefer a white pearl finish, maybe something like this:

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f225/dolphinlee/whitepearl.jpg[/IMG]

In 12, 14, 20, would be nice, something like this maybe:

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f225/dolphinlee/drums.jpg[/IMG]

That snare doesn't match though (a 70's Pearl), luckily I have one that does.

It would need the same badges of course:

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f225/dolphinlee/IMG_0045.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f225/dolphinlee/20kick.jpg[/IMG]

A 12 tom with a nice lug offset would be pefect:

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f225/dolphinlee/IMG_0049.jpg[/IMG]

8 lug kick, FT, would be another nice feature!

Cool drums - They might be a little higher in quality than your average "firewood" import kit (I hate that term, BTW).

I'm actually thinking they're from the 60's. Anyone know for sure?

Don't know for sure what year, but I think the "60's" is a good guess, judging from the tom mount on the kick. Maybe early 70's. I think that by the mid/late 70's, most import kits had gone over to a more modern tom mount system.

I know that my first kit, a Cortley (stencil) MIJ kit came with a hex shaped, ball and socket type mount, likely copied from the Rogers line of hardware. That would have been around 76' or 77'.

And, by the way, that kit is still played to this day. I stripped the red sparkle wrap off the drums around the mid/late 80's and refinished them in a dark walnut stain. I polished up the chrome and touched up the bearing edges while I was at it. I then presented the drums to my nephew, who was maybe 10 or 11 at that time, as a christmas gift.

Great story too - When it was time to open presents, I gave him a small gift box. Inside were drum sticks, brushes, a tuning key and practice pad. He didn't own a single drum at that time but had been begging his parents for a kit. He looked at me kinda funny and I said "Well, you have to start somewhere - If you're still using the practice pad by next X-mas, maybe we'll get you some drums." He was grateful and thanked me, but I could see he was really hoping for some drums. About a half hour later, I asked him to come out to my car and help me carry in some food and such. The look on his face when I opened the trunk and he saw the kit was something I'll remember forever.

Anyhow, that kit brings back many fond memories and I gigged it hard for over 10 years without cases (yeah, I know but I was young and dumb). Other than the beat up wrap, which I removed, the rest of the drums were/are in excellent shape.

Long Live the stencils!!

That's a beautiful story! Brings back memories of finding a 4 piece red tiger Yamaha kit in our front room one Christmas. It was all we could afford back then! I wish I still had it. But I traded up for a 22" kick???

I played and gigged on a luan stencil kit (Dolphin?) in black wrap for over ten years and all throughout music school. I was never able to recapture the exact timbre I got out of those drums with a myriad of "upgrades" including maple from Gretsch and Sonor. I learnt how a drum is basically an enclosed cylinder of air and that the biggest factor in sound is the heads and drum sizes. I had no choice but to make the most of cheap drums at the time and was amazed how good they could sound.

Hasn't Gretsch gone back to using luan in the catalina jazz series? They are nice sounding drums. An other reason I am enraptured with the Boston- it has proper T-bolt tension rods on the bass drum. New kits (most) these days need a key for them, not fun using a key horizontally in a hurry. I think accountants do more drum design these days then engineers, or drummers.

But I thought 60's because of the tear drop lugs that closely ressemble the 64Sonor style. And the tom mount as you said, sizes, and overall vibe.

I'd give my left nut for a royal star vistalite kit!

Thanks - Yes, it was a magical day. I later gave the same nephew a 1950's WFL 6" X 14" snare in WMP. I told him that if he ever sold it, I'd hunt him down and slay him :)

As for Gretsch, I think that all but the top of the line kits may be imports these days. I own a Gretsch Catalina Club Mod 4 piece (with the silly 20" X 22" kick) and it is indeed luan shells. They also have the round-over bearing edges, just like the stencil kits of yore. They sound fantastic. I currently have it set up with Evans coated EC 1 heads (they have the control ring) and tuned low.

Great drums with gobs of tone - Perfect for rock!

Like I said re: the Boston kit, could be early 60's through early 70's. Problem with dating stencil kits is nobody bothered to keep track of things like hardware changes, lug changes, etc... Plus, they don't generally have serial numbers like the US kits, making even harder to accurately date them.

You can look at a Ludwig kit and pretty much tell what era they are from, without even referencing a serial number. Ditto with the other US kits because they are collectible and many of the companies are still in business. I doubt that Pearl/Tama kept any accurate records of the bazillions of stencil kits they cranked out during the 60's.

So... we go on what we can see.

Do you own that Boston kit in the pics?