I have a '70's CB700 (made in the Pearl Taiwan factory) set in lauan, and I love the way it sounds.

I don't have much to compare it to, and I have refurbished and tuned these drums (leveled and cut new bearing edges, rewrapped in sparkle vinyl) to get the best sound possible, but other people who have played my kit tell me that it sounds great.

Although I've been playing music for 30 years, I just started playing drums, and I am happy with the way I sound on this set. If they can make a noob sound acceptable, they must have something.

One avenue of speculation suggests that my shells have been drying out for 35 years, which will enhance the musicality of any tonewood.

There's actually a high-end custom drum manufacturer that offers two different kinds of lauan shell: http://www.candccustomdrums.com/about-our-drums/

What kind of Pearl set do you have? An Export? or is it one of the older, thin-shelled '60's sets? I have a pre-Tama marching snare whose shell is so thin that you can deform it with your hands when the hoops are off of it and even it sounds pretty cool.

Guitarists have know for a while now that old cheapo instruments can actually sound and play pretty good after some TLC. From what I can see, the drum world is catching on, too, although a little more slowly.

A friend of mine has an old Pearl double bass drum set he bought for U$150 at the Pasadena swapmeet on his studio...they sound freaking amazing!!! I couldnt believe it!

Count me in! Luan sounds great because of its resonance and the rich tonal range. You can be very happy with an old MIJ kit as long as you accept the extra attention required in maintenance and tuning. They don't project as intensely as high end drums. Neither do they tune up as precisely. But, they are fun to play.

flowers2

The older 60's vintage M.I.J. shell's sound good if you re-work the edge's on them and put the right head's on them..Also do to their age the wood has had time to dry out so to say..I rent alot of drums to the studio's in L.A..Ca some of the guy's i have worked with like the sound of the drums too...I have also used these Luan shell's in the studio also....Mikey

Thanks for the responses. I was going to consider re cutting the bearing edges but I'm real happy with the tone of the drums. I have coated emperors and clear ambassadors on the resos. Lots of articulation with just the right touch of boom.

Mikey's right on the "dry out" bit. The vintage MIJ shells after they have had time to "age" seem to be really good quality stuff. This applies to both the thinner shells with the reinforcement rings AND the thicker multi-ply shells without the rings. And like a lot of drums from this era the biggest issue I've seen with bearing edges is where the fad-induced drummer discarded the bottom heads & hardware...

Anyway, I build "custom" kits out of these old shells and move more of them than I do the name brand drums. I'll admit that is mostly because of price -- however the kits I make out of the "cheap MIJ" shells for the most part are just as good, players-quality wise. The biggest issue I have to be careful about is when drilling new holes -- the luan likes to splinter out real easy.

Bill

How would you "rework" the edges on these? Are they worth re-cutting? if so what profile? I've a crown kit that I just cleaned and put back together. Based on what I read on the forum I did a light sanding of the edge then waxed to smooth them out with out altering the edge, but they are in consistent. They are basically a flat edge with a 45 on the rering, but in spots the outer portion of the edge rounds over. I'm not sure if they tried to do a round over at the factory and it was a bad job or if it was just how the edges were sanded originally or from something that previous owners did. I'm inclined to believe that they came from the factory that way as there was a raised spot on the 12" tom that I had to sand down to get the edge even. They sound OK to me as is but If I can make it better I'd be inclined to try.

Yes, a 45 degree cut on the ring, and a simple "round-over" on the edge. I use my router/table to touch up both.

On the thicker, multi-ply shells, most of what I've seen is a simple "round-over" on both the inside and the outside edges. These are usually much harder to touch up, as the grain on the outer and inner plies usually runs from top to bottom instead of around the drum. IF that is soft it creates a bigger problem. I've had to cut to drums down a little and start from scratch on those...

I would be surprised if your Luan shells sound as good as other drums on ALL shells. Each type of wood has a resonance and each sample of that wood varies slightly from the average. A floor tom will sound best when made with a type of wood that has a natural resonance close to what one would expect of a floor tom.This is why Tromsa kits ,the majority of which came out with 14" floor toms are excellent budget jazz kits. Most 14" floor toms ,made from harder wood sound tight and high. Tromsa used Poplar. The same wood used for a tenor tom might not sound as good and for a snare drum ,even less good. Each type of wood works best for a specific size of drum. Luan based snare drums tend to sound very poor; flat and dull but any given sample of even the most pedestrian of woods can rise above the pale, occasionally. Luan shell kits, where one is using a snare of choice , can sound o.k.----the floor toms and the 20" bass drums tend to benefit from the open porosity of the wood , getting a deeper more punchy tone than similar sized drums from other harder woods----as long as a decent seal is assured at the bearing edge, to contain the air. The shape or angle of the bearing edge is irrelevant. Basically and simply put ; the ideal drum kit would be made from several different wood species, with each one selected as tone wood for the specific application, much the same way a Luthier selects wood for the belly and back of a violin.