And your pics. will always come out better by the pool !!

Welcome! From the indicators I see, the Sound King style lugs and the tympani style T-rods on the bass, this is a Star made kit, not at all Pearl. Try a known Pearl T-rod in the bass, guaranteed not to fit, if this is a Star kit. Need better pix to make the real call tho....

The Star parts use a rather hard to find thread type and we look for them all day long here.

There were some indicators to me that it wasn't Pearl too...which is fine. Either way I fully intend to use and enjoy em! I read a rather long post from a forum on a Google search on identifying older MIJ sets. Someone gave a lengthy post with some GREAT information on how to identify early Pearl drums from Star and a handfull of others. One thing I read was something about a laminate BD...all of my drums appear to be all wood.

I have a smear of other lugs, none of which fit. It made me nervous cause two lugs are in bad shape...I wanted to swap em for some I had in the basement to make sure they would hold but no dice. I was thinking about swapping all the internals and lugs for something I could readily buy since I intend to use this kit regularly.

Practice is tomorrow, I will take the camera with and snap a few shots of the hardware...anything else that would help? One thing, not all of the T-rods match. I will snap a shot of each to show you.

Super stoked about tomorrow...I can't wait to jam!

So I have been reading much on here about finishing the insides of the drums to help with sound and preservation. Tonight I got a semi-gloss finish, hopefully it will help some in that department once I get to that point. I'm not even sure if I got the "right" stuff yet...more reading to do. When I finish the drums, I am probably going to do one at a time...since it may take a while. I want to pull off all the hardware and clean it a little better, and put a good healthy coat of wax on the shells. I want these babies to shine!

Ok, so here are a few shots of the hardware.

Another thing I noticed is not all of the wood grain goes in the same direction. The floor tom, the grain is horizintal, and the rack tom the grain is vertical. I was going to try to get a few shots of this, but the heads gave too much reflection. Maybe after the show Saturday when I plan to bring em home and refinish the inside of the shells I can get a few decent shots. Another thing, I have two different styles of bass drum TR. I probably should have taken a pic of each...Doh!

Also...does anyone have the muffler for the rack tom? For now I fit a Ludwig one in but the arm is too short and the muffler really does not come fully into contact with the head, it hits it at an angle...and I would really like to keep my Ludwig stuff together.

[QUOTE=Fordman49;193841]There were some indicators to me that it wasn't Pearl too...which is fine.

I'm a bit confused, here. The drums are all badged Pearl, and apparently, it looks like they are original and the wrap looks original, apparently too. I've seen older Pearl drums with those same lugs---drums actually badged Pearl. Why would you think these aren't Pearl drums?

Honestly, I am as ignorant as the day is long when it comes to MIJ kits (or vintage drums in general), and figuring out what is what. I read a few posts that gave some insight as to what to look for. The way I read it, they looked more like a Star kit to me. Unfortunately I do not have any Pearl lugs around to see if they fit, as I was also told that Star used a different lug size than Pearl. Initially, they looked like early Pearl's to me. It's difficult for me to get past the badges, where they are located, and the age they are showing...it all fits with the kit. If someone re-badged a Star kit to make this, they did a good job in my opinion.

I would also love to learn what those clamps are for on the top of the BD. There is one on each side, one closer to the reso side and another closer to the batter side spaced kinda evenly apart~ish. Judging from the mounting hardware inside, they are original (same screws and washers).

Here's a slightly different shot in a little better light perhaps. You can clearly see the little mounts on the BD I was talking about though

Also there is a little of my favorite snare in this one...

One of the things about the pre- Peart era for Japanese drums is that the principle companies, with the exception of Yamaha, were not so much interested in making good drums as making cheap drums. One of the 3 ways of doing this was to consolidate effort. In early post war Germany the same thing happened, although Germany started from a position and tradition of quality. In that case, at one time, Deri ,which by a financial fluke, could afford a foundry, produced all the hardware for the West German drum industry. In some instances, identical hoops can be seen on distinct brands.

I suspect the same was true in Japan until into the 70's a little, so the hardware choices were few and some commonality and crossover took place because it all came from one foundry. Case in point is the footpedals----someone on this forum claimed that one brand---I don't remember which, but let's say it is Top Pedal was a Star pedal and Pro Pedal was a Pearl pedal and there is also the Speed Pedal. There is no way in the world that one of these was a copy of the other---it would make no financial sense,to utilize the resources of a separate foundry to copy an inferior pedal. If you look at the 3 of them side by side(they all came in a leather strap and steel strap version), they have the same moulding marks, the same or very similar castings and the same construction details----they all came from the same foundry--------- it seems that it would be pretty difficult to determine which assembly factory made your drums on the basis of hardware details. Also, different export markets probably received slightly different products. As for the possibility that someone rebadged a Star set as Pearl? That would make about as much sense as putting Pontiac badges on a Chev.---Regarding the grain direction on the one drum. These drums were being pumped out by the 10's of thousands and the margin on them was pretty small, for sure. So, they had a piece of leftover wood, that would make a shell one way but not the other----it didn't matter; they were pretty much disposible drums and the factory managers knew it----if these had come to Canada, they would have sold for about 250.00, complete with stands and cymbals after being assembled, boxed,shipped overseas,cleared(duty and entry fees paid there), transferred to a railcar or truck, shipped, warehoused, shipped ,sold and possibly delivered. There was at a minimum-----7 levels of cost associated with their eventual sale at what was a very low price.

Indeed...I see what your point is. Like I said earlier, this question was more for curiosity's sake than a need to know. It would make no sense to me to re-badge a kit either, but I have seen some crazy stuff with cars that would make you scratch your head!

Many thanks for the information!

Any information on those two mounts on top of the BD?