I've always been a four piece fan with just one mounted tom. Recently I couldn't pass up a Majestic five piece kit that has two identical sized mounted toms.
It has two matching 12x8's with off set lugs that appear to be original to the kit.
Was this common in the five piece world? Anyone else come across this on a MIJ kit?
in the very late 50's and through the early-mid 60's, two 12's were seen on factory kits. the first Ludwig Hollywood kits were 22/12/12/16. seen those as early as 57 and as late as 65. I would assume some of the mij kits followed along with that trend.
mike
Mike is correct. My 62' Hollywood is 12, 12, 16, 22. At that time, Japanese companies were 'knocking off' American drum company kits with their stencil kits as fast as they could make them.
John
Rogers did the same size configuration as late as about 1967 / Dayton era. I have a set in the basement I picked up couple of months ago.
Thanks for the info...I actually prefer the uniform look. I believe Kieth Moon had three or four 13" for a time. Maybe the Pictures Of Lilly kit...looks cool
my black jacks have the twin twelves
My 1958 Dandy kit has matching 12" rack toms but I think it might be slightly different as one is a concert tom that could be ordered as an add on out of the catalogue. So while still part of the original kit, I dont know if it quite qualifies as the same.
I like the uniform depth look, I believe Premier had differing widths but same depth toms available back in the day.
The Gretsch Rock 'n Roll kit also had twin 12's with a 20 bass and 16 floor. Very common from my memory until the tom mounting system Rogers developed allowed 12 and 13 toms to have the heads at the same level. That I believe was the breakthrough. Separate Swivomatic mounts could do the same thing, but the double mount really made the difference and the 67 era mount improved the ability to carry the extra weight of the 13-inch tom while remaining stable.
One of the guys who is a favorite among the crowd here, Bobby Colomby, used a Rogers kit with twin 12's on a 20 with a 16 floor in the early days, and them moved to twin 13's on a Premier kit.
Here's a Rogers with twin 13's from Canada. Wayne Brown on this forum has advised that 13's were the available size up there and it was common to see them and less common to find a 12. Some other double 12's included here as well.
Sonor used same width- different depths in the teardrop era sometimes, although they did make both 12 and 13" toms. Trixon only ever made 13" toms as true tenor toms , originally of various depths and so those show up in the early 50's as pairs , with an inch difference in the depth. After 1963 or so, there was only one depth and mounted equal size toms show up after that. However , they did make both 9 and 10" alto toms( very rare) until about 1963 and 14" x 11 1/2" humongous tenor(?) toms from the late 40's until the end and any of these could show up paired with the common 13."
