Most of the ones I have had, Stewarts for one have the rings all though I am working some Apollos right now and they have thick shells with a grey paint inside. Actually have two red sparkle Apollo kits and one has rings and one has the thick grey shell. One of the 9x13 toms even has a center ring like the bass drum, kinda cool I think. So to sum it up, they have both.

Jeff C

From what I've seen and handled, the ones with the rerings and center rings are mid-60s; just the re-rings, mid- and late-60s into the early-70s, and thicker shells with no re-rings started showing up in the mid-70s. Also, for what it's worth, all of the MITs of the 80s and beyond have not had the rerings.

Just my observations; I don't claim to know it all about all the different variations of these things...

Bill

I'm pretty sure you've covered it, Bill. There may be a few exceptions, but in my opinion you're on the mark.

C

Hmm...In general I do agree.... but, rerings dissapeared on some brands as early as around 1970. My first kit was a Pearl Thunderking, bought in 1971, without rerings. Pearl had already started to produce Wood/Fibreglass shells and even fiberglass shells (without rerings) by then. So, I would say 1970 was the year when the transition from rerings to simpler shells took place. (-I say simpler, not nessesarily inferior). Actually my first Pearl kit sounded pretty good even if I was too young to tune them very well at the time ;(

/ Johan M