...oh, and by the way...
A few discussions have come about in regards to the drawbacks of single-tension systems (like with this Junior kit). I must say...it was one of the nicest options for quick tuning changes of any drum I have played. I don't know that it would or wouldn't work as great on tom toms and snare drums, but because of the low pitches of the bass drum range, the single-tension T-rods/Claws worked great. In fact, I changed the tension on the bass drum several times during the gig in relation to what kind of samba or bossa nova tune we were playing. On the slow ones, I lowered the tension and backed off on the muffler so that the tone was low, long and deep. On the faster tunes, I increased the tension and put the muffler on so that each note could be articulated.
The bass drum and the snare drum were the ONLY drums in the kit. That meant that I had to actually bring my awareness of the bass drum up to a higher level. I discovered that I could do things related to the Brazilian beats like leaving the beater against the bass drum head on the first stroke and then on the second stroke I would let the beater rebound quickly. This gave a kind of muted, slightly higher-pitched sound that alternated with the more open and slightly deeper sound -very similar to the effect of a surdo.
And, I used my Ludwig Downbeat snare drum tuned very high. It almost gave the effect of the Brazilian repenique drum -lots of contrast to the bass drum sound.
The Junior snare drum is a nice drum, but inappropriate for gigging (for MY gigs, anyway)..but the bass drum was a dream!
