Welcome! Kontantine. These Stewarts are made by Star, the company we know today as TAMA. The wrap color is Fibre Gold. In order to date them, I will need to see the interior of the shells. If they are thin 3 ply with re-inforcement rings, they will be made before mid-67 and very deep and resonant, if 6 and 9 ply, they will be post mid-67 and have a higher pitch and tone. If you look in the catalogs, you can see the timeline. It is hard to get any closer with most wraps, but this is a limited run wrap, only available from about 68 until around 71. So this wrap is usually only found on thicker shells, making them later than the 3 ply era. However, as we find out almost everday, there is never a "finite" set of rules, and they could be left over shells. Nice condition, BTW. What heads you are using?

The hardware does not jive for me....old style cymbal mount and rail, yet a lter wrap, and wood hoops....hmm, this is a nut-twister for sure. Not sure how this dates. I have only seen this wrap on later drums, and yet it seems these are older.

I've got a Hydraulic batter head and Evans G2 on the tom, and i believe it's an Emperor X on the bass drum but either way i'm planning to replace'em as these are still the heads that the previous owner used which don't sound too bad but aren't necessarily my sound...

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Very cool. You have some seriously thumping tubs here! They are 3 very thin plies of mahogany. I treat these in a particular way to both save the brittle interior ply and to increase the resonance.

First, remove all hardware and lightly sand the interiors using 100 grit, then to a fine 220 grit. This is a bit of work, but in the end, you will be happier and the drums will have a new life. Once the wood is smooth and the grain is "closed", you can coat it in one of several types of sealant. I use a clear lacquer because it is more of a "natural" substance and it dries fairly hard yet remains breathable. Poly is a plastic and does not breath and changes the resonance of the shell enough that the mics will know. One or maybe two coats is really all you need as you are not trying to make it a solid surface, it is only to seal the wood and make it more resonant. These shells are seriously low and woody, very smokey in tone. I love these shells, my WMP Pearl early 60s stencil no name set has these shells and everyone that sits down to play them immediatly asks to buy them.

Do not change the original contour of the bearing edges, but do yourself a favor and sand them smooth as well and then wax them or treat them with an edge treatment. This makes tuning easier, allowing the heads to slide more easily over the edges and tuning then becomes very smooth. I do this to all of my drums, "burninshing" the edges and waxing them, if you use wax, make it beeswax. Waxing is not merely rubbing it on. You have to work the wax into the wood, thus "burnishing" it.

As for heads, you may wamt to go back with simple Remo Ambys or a thin coated head that is more calf like as these are old school shells and seem to like to vibrate freely. Low tuning is best as trying to hold high tension on these shells causes them to cave in and crack. Use the lowest tuning you can get away with.

Good luck with them, and if you need more info or want to see any repair how-to vids, follow the link in my signature to my youtube page to see them and if you have a problem not listed, I can make one for you if I have something that I can make the video with.

Thanx a bunch for the info :) I'm gonna follow your advice and see what happens. I'm pretty excited to get these to their full potential. Unfortunately i don't have the floor tom for this kit, i guess trying to find a floor tom that would match the colour and be a 3 ply would be virtually impossible... what do you think?

P.S. i can't access your videos on youtube as it redirects me to my videos,

would you have any direct links to the videos?

This one is for edges, but please use it only as a guide. This is for changing the shape, but just try to sand them, as you should not have to change contour, only smooth them.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5YAL_MZ030[/ame]