Greetings,
I call this my "Franken-Kit", because all the drums have completely different lug designs. I hope you enjoy the photos and my (hopefully not too long and boring) "restoration story" as well.
I found these at a music store back home where I grew up in the Toledo, OH area. It was just the 12", 16" and 20" when I got them; I added the 14" later. For a group of "thrown together" orphans, the wrap is almost a perfect match on all of them. The rack tom and bass are just a tiny bit more orange than the floor toms, but it's very close.
The rack tom was missing the diamond shaped clip mount, and had been replaced with a Gibralter L-arm type bracket. I procured the diamond shaped clip mount from a fellow forum member; I don't recall who (but thanks!). The Gibraltar bracket had two mounting holes. Luckily, the former owner used the existing bottom hole of the diamond bracket for the bottom hole on the Gibraltar, so there was only one extra hole to fill, and it's hidden by the diamond mount. The rack tom is vertical grain luan and has a natural interior with re-rings, with "Club Date" style center mounted lugs.
The 16" Floor tom is the only one with a badge on the entire kit (Werco) and came complete. I replaced the original leg brackets with Ludwig brackets (same hole spacing, so no extra holes were drilled). The 16" is a thick luan shell with a gray painted interior and no re-rings, and Slingerland Copy lugs.
The bass drum needed the most work. As stated before, the former owner used an L-arm to mount the tom (the original rail mount was missing). To secure the tom arm, the former owner put a Pearl BT-3 style single tom bracket on the bass drum to accept the single ball and socket style tom arm. Also, the original cymbal bracket was missing and the wrap was cracked and splitting where the cymbal bracket used to be. I looked for awhile for a rail mount that would match up to the original hole pattern on the bass drum, but couldn't find an exact match. I found one that was very close, so I used that. I replaced the cymbal bracket with a Ludwig bracket. I filled in all the old holes from the original rail and the tom bracket on the bass drum, as well as over the old cymbal holder. I knew I would be keeping this kit, and since it is definitely a "players" condition-wise, I thought I would try covering the holes I filled in with extra pieces of wrap I had left over from the 14" floor tom (more on that below). I just cut square or rectangular pieces big enough to cover the holes. This also solved the cracking of the wrap problem where the cymbal mount was. It certainly isn't a "factory" looking job, but I kind of dig the "patchwork" look to the top of the bass drum; it's unique. The bass drum has a natural interior with re-rings. It also has a re-ring down the center of the drum as well, but sadly the previous owner had to cut some of it away to make room for his "upgraded" single tom arm (grrrrrrrrrrr!). The ring is tight and holds fine with no rattling, but a section of it about the width of the rail mount is missing. It has really large "battleship" type lugs.
The original spurs (3/8") that came with the kit were just plain awful! Even maxed out as far as they could extend, they barely touched the ground and the bass drum was unstable at best. Just a horrible design. Maybe the spur brackets were drilled too high up at the factory? Anyway, I had to get creative with this one. I thought about just getting 3/8" straight rod and cutting it to the length I need, but since the brackets are mounted so high on the bass, and the original spurs curve downward, this solution would've certainly worked, but the spurs would have stick out really far on either side of the bass drum. So, what I ended up doing was taking off the rubber tip and cutting 3/8" thread at the bottom of the spurs. I then took a 3/8" coupling nut and JB welded it on about halfway. After that dried, I took a 3/8" hex head screw and JB welded that completely into the coupling nut. Then I simply cut the head off the screw and put the rubber tips back on. Again, this is far from a "factory" job, but it works like a charm and the bass drum is as solid as a rock now, plus I have plenty of extra length inside the bass drum, in case I ever need it.
The last thing about the bass drum is the metal chrome hoops. One thing the former owner did that actually made sense is that he/she took a rubber/neoprene material that is the exact width and height of the "groove" that all metal hoops have, and glued it in. I had to re-glue it again, but it really looks nice and also solves the problem of a pedal not gripping a metal hoop correctly because of the "groove". I've never seen anything quite like that before. (See photo 5 for a closeup of the spur and neoprene hoop.............uh.........I guess we'll call it "reverse inlay"?).
Finally, I wanted to add a second floor tom to this kit, a 14". I luckily found a cheap one on Craigslist ( I think the original brand was "Orbitone"). It was in good shape overall, with a glossy blue wrap. Again, I replaced the original brackets with Ludwig brackets, and used one of the existing holes. I filled in the other before I wrapped it. I got "Gold Glitter" wrap from Precision, and it matched great! The 14" has a natural interior with no re-rings, probably basswood or poplar.
So, there's my long (and hopefully not too boring) story about these. All the toms have 2.3 mm hoops top and bottom, and the snare is a Pearl "Mirror Chrome Steel Shell", which is basically a "Pre-Sensitone" (that model turned into the Sensitone). I love that snare. If you find one, grab one. I've always likened them to a more affordable, 8 lug version of a Supra. This is really fun kit to play, and something about each drum being an orphan, but looking and sounding great as a family is pretty cool to me. Enjoy!
V
