Sweet! Bought as a basher kit, eh? Other than the lack of the tunable floor tom, I'm definitely salivating!

Nice, I don't know much about these but from what I hear after talking to Blair is that the parts are hard to come by. It looks like the 13" tom has different lugs? They look exactly like Zickos lugs? Is that a common thing on these drums?

Hi Adam,

like I said........seems like most Meazzi drums went to Sweden for some reason!

I know 3 people there who have sets!

also, 1 guy in Germany

a few guys in Italy (surprise!)

1 guy in Australia

1 guy in UK

Me here in the US,and I know a guy in Tacoma who has 2 or 3 sets.

and there was a guy in Finland with a set

and I am sure a few more out there,but not too many!

There is a cool 1968 Horace Silver video on YT with Billy Cobham playing a Hollyweird kit with a tuneable FT.

Jack DeJohnette played them,also,Max Roach,Roy Brooks and a few more Pros.

The shells are very Gretsch like........thin shells without re-rings.

Blair

My friend Paolo Sburlati is been looking for years in Italy for a set for me...they are all gone poof!...Someday ,somewhere....Ill find mine...

What sizes are you looking for?

Blair: Yeah, I know you have one. Its just not the one Im looking for. I want the one with tunable floor tom...

Vin

Nice to see something different - and nice quality too.

The two broken claws are not a big problem - change the two on each side of the bass drum pedal, no bobody will see it.

Then there is a Premier hoop on the bottom of the tom - an original could prove very hard to find.

Regards

Jon

Hi Jonathan, I am one of the drummers in Sweden that Blair speaks about.

(Thanks for the 12"-tom, Blair, it arrived safe and sound. )

Very nice kit, cool !

As Blair said - It is the top model, President.

It seems as the floor tom is a bit older than the small tom and bass drum, from looking at the lugs.

I don't know exactly when the Meazzi production changed the lugs,

but it could be mid- to late 60s.

The small tom also has square headed rods, and the floor tom has hex-headed rods.

DW-rods have same thread (M5), you could change the hex ones to DW's,

then you can tune the drums with your standard drum key.

Here's a photo of my snare drum, with TWO throw-offs (!):

[img]http://archive.pixbox.se/arkivet/synligt_27/31190000-31199999/640x480/31199928.jpg[/img]

The finish is called "Legno Ondulato", looks like "Brass Oyster"-something

Unfortunately I don't have any nice shots at my complete kit yet, I really must take some decent pic's of it.

My sizes are: 20-13-16-14x5, complete with all hardware.

The shells on my drums is 3 plies, no re-rings, and probably made of Beech.

Great sounding drums, very similar to old Gretsch.

Here's a Hollywood snare I picked up with a Zickos kit. The seller said 'You can take this junky snare drum if you like. It could use some work'.

I don't know anything about it, but it looks like it's a qaulity peice of work and if restored could sound fantastic. 10 lugs to boot. He had some fellow machine up some replacement claws since they tend to crack. Design flaw of using that method I guess.

That's a nice one, VintageNut.

Late 60s, or early 70s by the look of the lugs.

I have one almost exactly like yours, mine has a brass-coloured stripe in the middle.

Your snare might have more sharp modern edges, the older ones have very round edges.

The claws crack from time to time if overtightened, so they are the weak point.

If you find any replacement claws, buy some extra, just in case.