I just bought a Camco set at a swap meet. It is the last of the American made with the different badge. From the little research I've done, it's the Camco made by Tama but with the made in USA badge. A previous owner put a Ludwig mount for the toms, I am wondering if anyone knows what the tom mount looks like for the original.
Here is the badge that was on the drum
http://www.vintagesnaredrums.com/images/badges/camco/camco_half_moon_large.jpg
Thanks in Advance
My memory of them was they had the Tama bull's horn mounts and this recent ebay posting seems to confirm that.
This was a weird time for the Camco name and most Camco collectors don't see the Tama-Camco stuff as "the real deal" not least because my recollection (again) tells me they started using leftover Camco shells but then went over to Japanese manufactured shells. And this is a grey area that persists in people's minds today, I suspect.
The vibe at the time I vaguely remember (I was just a lad) was that it was a bit of a con - Tama essentially trying to buy their way into the top end of the US drum market.
And it was an attempt that failed - it turned out they were much better at actually just being Tama. Great bass drum pedals though and I gather from a couple of enthusiasts that some of the Tama-Camco drums sound great.
But on collectability level right now there's not a lot of heat (which is not to say that won't change in the future).
How many toms need mounting - I have one of the old Tama mounts from that period but only for a single tom.
The kit is a 12, 13, 16 with 22 bass. It looks as though someone relaquered the shells. The also changed the mounts to Ludwig. It looks as though no extra holes were made to change the mount. One of the toms I sanded a large area to see if the wood is maple. The shells are very thin and have re rings, with low serial numbers in side. They seem to be pretty good shape, although the set is not as clean as the one in the link. I need to do some bass drum repair for a small punch in the shell. I'm thinking that I will probably change it to a 3 piece with a shell mount tom holder and rewrap it. I haven't decided just yet, I may sell it too. Anyway thanks for the info, and if you can, shoot me a picture of that holder.
By the way, how's the Camco project going? I believe you were the person who bought the shells not too long ago on Ebay? Any progress?
Will try and send you a pic of the Tama holder but I can tell you now it is four holes into the bass drum shell and the hole in the bass drum needs to be about an inch or more wide for it to have been the type I have - I think Ludwig's mid-70s bull's horn system had pretty much identical holes. If you've got three holes in the bass drum then it could originally have been a Camco mount which I also have one of. But I only have a single tom holder (and it doesn't adapt to two).
As for the project Oaklawn kit which, for those who haven't followed, was just shells in 8" x 12", 14" x 14" and 12" (yes 12") x 20". Astoundlingly I've managed to get all the lugs though I've had to compromise with DW bass drum lugs and DW t-rods (finding all these was astounding enough on it's own). The latter will end up on my Camco Chanute bass drum (actually they got put on last night) and the others will move to the little Oaklawn jazz kit. No original rims at all (not even on the bass drum) so it's going to be hopefully a top class restoration/player but no more than that.
The toughest thing has been finding original (and period accurate) nitro-cellulose in Sweden (or continental Europe for that matter) because these drums were originally lacquered and have the clear lacquered inners to prove it.
Have thought many times about getting them wrapped (which I would kind of prefer) but it would take them one step further away from "factory" and my little purist soul has a problem with this.
I can't take them back to the original maple (which was my original intention) due to the earlier dark brown (ebony?) lacquer but it is apparently impossible to get coloured cellulose lacquer anymore over here and equally impossible to move it from country to country because of flammability issues. You can just get the clear stuff.
I've even comtemplated getting them "re-wrapped" in maple veneer but this seems to be prohibitively expensive or so precise that I dare not take it on myself.
So looks like I am going to have to stain the shells instead and then have them clear lacquered on top. I am aiming for a piano black kind of vibe so I hope to hell this will work. I've just found a furniture maker who is also a drummer who can do this (spray guns and such are beyond my scope), so unless anyone has an astoundingly creative solution to my problem, this will be happening shortly after Easter.
Will try and post pix of the newly restored and partially re-lacquered Chanute kit shortly.
David
