Welcome, mike, to the VDF, we have some resident experts on your drums they are, Made in either japan, taiwan, or indonesia , so they are called Mij, Mia, Or Mit!post this question up in the Non Usa drum section you'll probably get more replies!!

Missed this yesterday. Welcome! OK, what you have appears to be a Star "stencil" kit. I would like to see the interiors of the shells. That will help determine the age. I have some of the parts you need, and Mikey will likely have some as well. As for hoops, you are better off to buy new generic ones as the originals are hard to find and usually in poor condition. Go to this site for the best pricing around: www.drumfactorydirect.com you will find it a little difficult at first to navigate his site, but the prices are great. For the hoops, you will want to get the 2.3mm triple flanged as those will sound much less ringy when played.

As for "tabs", I am not sue what you mean by that. Show me the mounting hardware for the toms, and the floor tom legs as well. Those can be found almost anywhere, but the above site offers them as well. Get the thinner 9.5 mm I think. Those are the ones that will fit best on these old drums. The T-rods and swivel nuts likely will need to be replaced as again this is a hard to sort out bunch. The t-rods are thinner than others and have a different pitch thread as well. Exchange them for new all around. It will save you a massive headache, I promise. Let's see the existing T-rods on the bass, and the lugs and strainer on the snare as well. It's a bit to ask I know, but to get you up and runnimng, it is going to take some work. As for hoops, you may want to just order new wood hoops and finish then yourself. Those are available here: www.aitwood.com another great resource for wood needs for drummers. As for the finish, well, it is what it is, old blue sparkle from Japan and it faded quite badly. Likely, you will just p;olish this up and play happily as re-wrapping is expensive and a apin to accomplish. And it won't really help as far as resale goes. You won't get your money back, more than likely.

well i found a few stamps on the rings stating made in japan but thats about it.

also a few photos you asked for are uploading i will add them to the bottom of this post. thanks for all the help so far, these arent something i want to sink a lot of money into im hoping to spend a few hundred dollars and have something affordable and playable, and IF i get better I will move on to bigger and better things.

As for rewrapping them i work for a tour bus company and we make counter tops out of laminate and im pretty sure i could do that at minimal cost, however I like the way the fade give it character and the few cracks make it look pretty neat.

well i cant get the photos to attach here and i dont want to link them since Webmaster changed it last time but i have a link to photo bucket

click for photos

From the pics on photobucket, I think you have an early Pearl snare. The bass drum and toms are clearly Star, but I have no idea what the floor tom mounts are. Dont think I've ever seen that style, doesn't look Japanese to me.

I wouldn't re-wrap this set if I were you. Yes, they have faded, but not too badly. When the blue sparkle gets really bad it starts turning a pale green color. You are right, these have a great character.

As for everything else, it just depends on how far you'd like to go restoring this set. The snare can be worked into a good player, parts can be found or replaced for the other drums. (I would consider buying all new inserts and t-rods for the lugs, for the top and bottom heads. It will make your life easier, trust me.) The interiors could use a good sanding. New heads obviously. It would be a lot of work, but you would be very happy and proud of the end result.

well after I snapped that last photo i started disassembeling the floor tom and im sanding the inside down as we speak just to smooth a few things out (thank god we have a drum sander at the shop)

Im going to polish all the shells really well and get the dirt and grime off them and let them be. Some appear to have sat in the sun and have turned a funky brown/red color in areas so the blue brown looks really cool on the snare. Also it happens to match an old danelectro guitar i have sitting here.

a buddy of mine is a drummer in a local band and has some Remo Black dot heads i can have (free is good!!) because he dont like the way they sound.

Im not so sure im going to "restore" them so much as get them in good playing condition that i wont have to worry about anything( am i going to find a replacement if it breaks, will it match, is it right, etc... etc...)

i think the mounts on the floor tom are just replacements because one has a long flat head screw and the other is pictured and the third is missing completely.

oh and the floor tom actually has the 3-star badge on it where everything else is blank, and the strainer on the snare has "Ludwig" etched on either side

edit: the leftmost tom mount on the bass is missing the tab to hold the tom up. Should i replace it with original hardware from somewhere or change over to a better system?

Are you planning on playing this set as a 4 or 5 piece (one rack tom or two)? If you are going to set it up as a 4 piece, I would recommend using a snare stand for the tom. Some people can get these mounting systems to work, but I haven't had much luck with them. I think it's just easier to use a snare stand. If you are going to use both rack toms, I would try to find the original parts (you can get them off ebay.) If you go to another mounting system you'll have to drill holes in both toms and the bass drum... Not recommended and is mostly frowned upon around here. So... please dont do it!

Would you mind posting a pic of the badge on the floor tom?

sorry its the sticker in the first post theres no badges they all look to have been removed or non-existant

Well, you have your work cut out for you. The floor tom needs a little work on the botom bearing edge. It has a smallish chunk taken out of it. Take all the lugs off, clean them with Turtle wax (or similar) rubbing compound, wrap the little springs in cotton balls, you can unravel them and make them fltten out, this will keep them from rattling. You can get this kit up and in good playing condition. Use the how to vids on my youtube, link is below. There is some good stuff there. If you need other ideas, or help, don't hesitate to get in touch with either of us. We both do a lot of resto work on these old MIJ drums. The strainer, BTW is not the wires on the bottom, the strainer is the mechanism on the side that has the arm on it. It is bent, and can be easily bent back, but be very careful. This will be a very informative and interesting job for you. You will know your drums very well by the time they are playable. That is a good thing. Buy NEW snare heads and a new set of wires, from the same place I told you earlier about the hoops. They are 14" 20 strand. Tuning the snare is something you should do with one of us supervising as it is difficult at first to get it right. Once you know th range it has, you can get it to sound low and fat, or high and tight, but knowing how to do it, that is the trick with these.

The snare is a Pearl, the rest are Star. Wood hoops on the bass will make it sound much lower and give you more flexibility in tuning.

well i started digging into my bass drum and am a little upset and discouraged. there was duct tape everywhere and when i started removing found a rather large crack where the legs were (there were 15'' long floor tom legs affixed to it here)

theres also a bit of bondo on the top near the tom mount rail which also has 4 small holes near it as though the rail had been replaced by something else (those long ass bolts are a pretty good idea too.

anyway the legs cracked it and put a hole the size of the washer in the drum on the right side.

at this point im wondering if i should buy a new bass shell or if this is repairable or not.