cn679 nailed it-you can do amazing things with these mij kits with modern heads and maintenance.We could talk this thing to death and no one really gets the answers they`re looking for on this post.Luan will peak cure when it wants to-just the nature of wood, either solid or plied...
Wayne
I'm with Calfskin. They were never built to be Great Drums. They were profit based and very little more. Cure? Nope. Just old cheap drums that could sound good with some work ... maybe, depending on the builder, the shells, and the hardware. There's just way too much "WANT" from people these days. It seems like many just really "want" these old MIJs to take hold and move outta the Rodney Dangerfield arena of No Respect. I'm not holding my breath on this one.
+1
Anyone with any minor craft/construction experience could easily identify the poor workmanship/cheap methods used to knock these suckers out
Doesn't mean they can't be useful, but any "magic" obtained from "curing" is really in the brain of the "salesman"
Bird played a plastic saxophone with a reed so thick it was like ply. Your sound is mostly in your hands. I don't subscribe to the theory that age can make average instruments magically transform into top shelf instruments. I cannot see how that will happen. It does not however, reduce their ability to make top shelf music. That's in the hands of the performer. After 30+ years of recording drums, I am convinced that the better the drum is made, the better it sounds in the hands of a competent player. The attraction to MIJ drum sets has a lot more than sound going for it. It's a whole lot of angles; including mojo; and bang for buck. I've taken apart a lot of drums and then restored and recorded them. For me, where luan shells shine, is for kicks and floor toms. The fundamental is cool. But take these kits on a gig where every instrument is vying for space; and 8 ply USA maple will just monster it, imo. $00.02
Hmmm... Okay, I'll jump into this.
A leopard can't change it's spots. Neither can a 60's luan kit.
You can re-work a 60's luan kit and make it playable.
I see these as more cool factor stuff. Kind of like a VW Bug. Great cars, dependable, cheap to maintain and operate, will easily get you from point A to B...
It's just more fun in a Mustang.
I just posted some spew in another MIJ thread. The drums I referenced there were mostly 70's kits. The build quality went way up around 1970 or '71... maybe even '69.
The hardware got slightly better as well, but the shells were much better.
