Hi Bill, I was thinking the same thing - Dharma bum's kit looks like a real Pearl. That said the Maxwin kit has the feel of an early 70s Japanese Pearl kit of which I've restored a few. Many of the parts are the same but without the "Japan" stamp on the mounts etc (tom mounts, FT leg mounts etc). To be fair, I was expecting to find a big step down in quality of parts and build over the Japanese Pearls but that's not the case. There is a small step down but it would be a very useable kit. The Maxwin was the precurser to the Export line. Here's a really good piece from the Mike Dolbear site: http://mikedolbear.com/story.asp?StoryID=2659&Source=Search&txtSearch=Sat

That was a very interesting article.

I'm not real sure how long Maxwin was available. I do know that in some point in the mid-70s Pearl began to offer their own branded "W" series drums along with their FG and WFG lines, even in the same catalogs. The "W" of course stood for "wood" and the shells were the same as the WFG less the inside FG lining. I have a set I need to restore -- just haven't gotten to it yet. Other than the lugs ("nut-boxes" as in that article) just about eveything was a little cheaper, just like the Maxwins. So I don't know if Pearl had them both going or discontinued the Maxwins at that time.

And yes, the idea of a "precurser to the Export line" is my opinion, too. Pearl understood the idea of identifying a market then meeting the needs of that market!

Bill

Thanks Bill for the comments.

The catalog pic shows what my kit is. I have some current pics but can't seem to attach - I need to resize and haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Anyway it's the set in the 1973 catalog, good quality shell, wood shell treated inside with some flat grey/brown paint - NOT fiberglass. 22 inch (even though it does look huge in front of 10-year-old me)10-lug bass. When I bought it from a local music store, they added a "matching" floor tom which is actually, I suspect, from the 1972 lower line, cheaper hardware and six lugs on a 16-incher. See the other catalog pic. This floor tom has the cheap luan untreated rough interior and is, not surprisingly, out of round. At the time neither the young me nor my parents noticed or cared, but now it's pretty clear the difference.

I still have the kit, it's in great shape and I gig it now and then with a Ludwig floor tom and snare.