I was looking for something else today and found a difinitive link to my drums' maker. In the vast sea of catalog scans, I came across, quite by accident, a catalog from La Boz. The hardware is identical to mine. O'bop, Wayne, Blake, Mikey, let's get our OCD working in sync and see if we can figger this one out. Is it Star, Pearl or Nikkan...or TEISCO...maybe...Or perhaps it is Pea-kkei-scar....?
This is the pipe tom mount, cymbal mount and floor tom leg brackets I have been looking for. There is something about the cymbal mount on this line that is so....sexy and very utilitarian at the same time, suggesting a higher end of the scale, the premium lines of the MIJ market. I am certain there are no discolorations where there may have been these stick on badges from the distributor, however they could have been removed many years ago and thus no marks were ever made. This catalog looks like it is well into the mid 60s and they were selling well under this badge. Looking at the quality of the layout suggests they were well marketed and successful. Maybe not as well known as the other badges, but still a "nicer line". This had to be a later production than mine as these are the 6 & 9 ply shells and mine are 2, 3 or 4 (thin).
Go to the General Comments section and have a listen to Sky having a run at them, they sound so much better live. I am using a still camera in video mode, an older Kodak CX6445, Dell special build from about 2001 for these videos I am doing. I think in order to get some sound loaded that will be closer to the real thing, I am going to get the bass player to bring his gear over on Sunday and make another video, this time micd up correctly. For instance, the snare really sounds cheesy in these from across the room, yet from the throne it actually sounds pretty good. I will put a different set of heads on before micing up, and that should make a huge difference, and I have to isolate the spring in the lugs as well, they are buzzing a little. Go here for a better set of pix. They won't load properly from my com puter, so go there to see how nice these knock-offs looked back then.
http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/my_collection_laboz_flyer.html
Anyway, now boys and girls, it's time to play our favorite MIJ guessing game!!! Who's the builder?!?!?!?!?!?!