Jonnistix never said that the owner of the Star drums didn't know how to tune them. Read his post again. He said he probably had trouble and went to the hydralics to solve the problem but the problem may be the edges of the drums themselves.

Looks like you've got some good drum buying mojo! I didn't see any of those kits and I'm always scouring trade me for bargains!Bowing

I'm not sure my partner would agree with you there:)

If it is the later versions, say from the 72-73 catalog, it is the Golden Tone outfit No. 5255, and the snare was either the 8256A COS, which I have or a King Beat 8588 COS upgrade, which is the Prince of MIJ snares, hands down. This is something new, I have not seen this catalog and was unaware of the King Beat strainer having been available on a woody. Now I have a new Holy Grail snare to look for....

Hey, that wrap is in the 72 catalog, it is called [SIZE=3][COLOR=gray]Tiger Pearl[/COLOR][/SIZE]. It's at the bottom of the page, right on the wrap selection page....

**EDIT** This wrap goes as far back as '65...it is in various colors, and is called some form of "Tiger". In the 65 cat, there is a red one called Tiger Eye on a Drum Mate kit.

I'd agree re the Golden Tone but it has the simpler spade tom mounts on mine and I think it's a 20" BD. I'll check when it arrives. The wrap could be Tiger pearl but it looks a more steely/blue/grey in the photos and the catalogs look a bit browner which would fit with the Tiger description I suppose. Again, I'll check it all out when it finally turns up.

The owner told me that it came from a brass band and had been stored for many years in the band rooms. So less likely to have had teenagers drilling holes and generally messing about with it...hopefully.

Ok, an update. The drums have arrived and I can now confirm they are a 20/13/13/16 configuration. Whilst the 2 rack toms look the same, one has the royal Star badge and the other has the Star badge. The Star badged tom originally had the triangular shaped mount instead of the spade mount that someone has switched over. As you can see, the Royal star badged drum is in better shape, in fact it's pretty close to immaculate except the badge looks like it may have been changed or removed at some point. Other than that the two 13's are identical. It may be that only one of them was used for a long period.

It seems possible to me that, being part of a brass band set up, the second tom was supplied with the kit as a special order with the matching mount being added by the store, but who knows?

Anyway I'll get onto cleaning them up and post new pics in the future.

Very cool! 6 ply shells. Tiger pearl is the only wrap like that I have been able to find in all the catalogs I have searched in my research for the wrap color. It is shown a couple of different colors from the early 60s, but that seems to be the pattern associated with Tiger.

Very unusual that two rack toms with the same size should be genuine. I believe that the 'Royal' Star tom came afterwards. As you mentioned, I - too - think that the 'Royal' Star badge seems not to be original, as the lugs fit exactly only with the 'Star' badge.

Ralf

OK, I've finally got around to finishing these. I've used what would have been the second rack tom as it was in better shape and the other one had been drilled for the other type of Star mount (very odd indeed). I still have the other one which will stay with the kit.

These are now heading to England with a buddy of mine who wanted to take one of my kits back home with him. So unfortunately I'll never get to play them as I finished them last night and I'm packing them right now to go in his container. However, I've tuned the toms and they sound great - like really great!

Those are sweet!

I've got a set of Royal Star's... They tune up dandy and sound like a thundering herd. Nice restore! See my kit on my web site... click on the 'fishwaltz' in my sig.