If anyone is interested in Kent kits, there is a gorgeous one on ebay. Nicest I've ever seen. Brought back memories, as my first kit looked like these - same black diamond pearl with blue labels - but mine was in "downbeat" sizes.
This kit is pricey, but it's beautiful. Regards, mb
Nice kit....but was the "mounted" tom originally supposed to be mounted on a snare stand? I see no brackets anywhere on the bass drum or the tom....Interesting.
In one picture you can see the diamond plate where a clip type mount would hold the tom. Round arm on the bd and clip end on the tom.
That's a good looking drum set. But, for that price, you can find some very nice Slingerland or Ludwig American-made drums of the same vintage. I know that there are Kent drum lovers. I'm not one of them.
Re: amosguy's comment about the diamond-shaped mounting plate on the tom, a look through Dennis J. Brown's "History of the Kent Drum Company" shows that Kent used several different tom mounts, including the old-fashioned type that clamped onto the bass drum hoop. And this type mount used the diamond-shaped mounting plate on the tom. I suspect this was the original configuration with the Kent kit on ebay.
The Kent book also shows the standard rail-consollete mount, but I never saw any of those on Kents.
I grew up near the Kent factory and nearly all of my drummer friends could only afford Kents. The only mount that I remember - from the mid-1960s - was the simple elbow-shaped mount with the ratcheting adjustment at the "elbow." The stem at either end fit into a socket in the bass drum and tom (same as the cymbal stem socket on the ebay bass drum shown in the pics) and tightened with a drum key against a small bolt.
This was a poor design; difficult to get your tom at the right height (if you were tall) and at the right angle and position, but for fledgling young drummers, it did the job. And that's all that Kent drums were - entry level drums at affordable prices.
About 10 years ago, I bought a nice looking 8-lug Kent snare on ebay, purely for nostalgic reasons. It appeared to be one of the better built Kent snares, but I was disappointed that it still sounded lousy! Ha! I sold it.
Regards, mb
In one picture you can see the diamond plate where a clip type mount would hold the tom. Round arm on the bd and clip end on the tom.
I see it now on second look! Thanks!
And thanks, Marty for the reminder of the clip-on bass drum tom mount option....totally forgot about those! But, yes, that would explain things!
Seems way over priced. I have only seen a few Kent drums in the wild and I wasn't impressed with the build quality. Marty Black seems to confirm that impression.
Agreed, way overpriced. A couple years ago I had an extremely nice 9x13 14x14 14x20 5x14 in BDP, blue label. Both the bass and snare were 8 lug. I was overjoyed to get $500 for the kit in a local sale.
Seller`s feedback isn`t impressive...
Cheers
I remember the Kent drums from back in my early years of lusting for a drum set. That would be when I was 12--15 years old in 1955--1958. The drums from the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs and the Japanese-made drums in the bargain section of music stores seemed flimsy to me and sounded "boingy" when struck with sticks. Kent drums were just as lousy irrespective of where the company claimed they were made. I was very fortunate to get a used three-piece Gretsch set in 1958. It was painted in the factory with two-tone Duco lacquer (Cameo Coral and Charcoal Gray). The mounted tom had one of those hoop mounts with two ratchets--one for height and the other for angle. That came in handy for me because I was able to switch the tom to the other side when I decided to play a right-handed set in an open-handed way.Those drums felt and sounded like real professional-quality instruments with not a hint of "boinginess". I still lusted for a floor tom, but made do with this drum set until I was able to use my savings augmented with some help from Mom and Dad to order a new Rogers four-piece set in Black Diamond Pearl.
