Greetings. This is a recent purchase of mine.
I'm a sucker for BDP. The floor tom has double lugs (that's the "Well Sorta" in the title of the post). The wrap on the floor tom is just a tad bit different, but it's darn close. I replaced the T-handles with key rods on the bass drum (I don't dig T-handles). I re-painted and re-lacquered the original wood hoops. I replaced the cymbal arm bracket mounted on the bass drum with a Ludwig. Same hole spacing, but the Ludwig has an eyebolt (As many of you know, I don't trust cymbal brackets like that without eyebolts)!
I also tried something new on this kit. Those MIJ spade/clip mounts were never exactly the sturdiest, and they do choke the drum when mounted. I replaced the spade/clip arm on the rail with an L-arm. The round part of the spade/clip arm that fits into the angle adjuster is 12.7mm. DW sells 12.7 mm L-arm in packs of two, for a reasonable price. The horizontal part of the arm is 12.7mm, and they sell the vertical part of the L in 9.5, 10.5 or 12.7mm sizes. I chose the 10.5mm size, as I had an Gibraltar bracket I could use. I used a suspension mount on the rack tom. I had to get creative on this one, because of the center mounted lugs, the normal way of installing a suspension mount was problematic, because the rubber grommets had way too much tension rod to slide up and down on. I placed the suspension mount "ears" directly on top of the regular counter hoop, and just used a larger diameter fender washer on the tension rod underneath the regular washer to keep it from "falling through" the suspension mount ear. This ended up working out great. It's rock solid with no "floating" movement, and no loss of resonance as compared to mounting it with the standard rubber grommet method. I ended up removing the clip bracket from the rack tom shell when I was changing heads, and filled in the holes with a little wood filler. I could've easily left it on, because it's very low profile; the lugs stick out more than the clip bracket, so it certainly wouldn't be in the way and could be hidden underneath the mounting plate on the suspension mount. Also, there are no moving parts to rattle. I did save both the clip bracket and the clip arm, so it can easily be converted back to it's original mounting method easily. As an added bonus, I got some additional height adjustability by using the L-arm method as well.
I replaced the brackets on the floor tom with eyebolt brackets. Same hole spacing, no further drilling required. Rounded the kit out with a Pearl "Pre-Sensitone" snare (great, highly underrated snare, IMO), some Ludwig Atlas cymbal stands (including a lighter weight model near the floor tom that goes lower) and a DW Claw hook clamp on the front bass drum hoop holding an additional cymbal arm.
They are all the thicker luan shells with gray painted interiors and no re-rings. Two new badges to add to the database as well. The rack tom and bass were badged the same, but they are foil stickers, and the sticker was 90% off on the bass drum, so I took off the rest but left the rack tom as is. I'm familiar with the Mica Swingline badge, but I've never seen it (or any other badge for that matter) mention the number of plies.
Hope you like them!
V
