After 45 yrs of playing drums as a pro,i,ve come to realize that some of the early MIJ gear minus the crappy hardware is quite ok.Finally after all these years we now know that these drums sound just as good or better than the US product.If i were you im,d grab onto this old MIJ gear as it has proven itself.I did a show tonite with a Crown kit i paid next to nothing for,and it help up and sounded perfect for the job!!!...DONT BE A DRUM SNOB!!!

The feeling was similar to what we are experiencing today. Parents and kids can obtain a cool looking drum kit for a fraction of the cost of a high quality U.S. kit (or nice kit from some other country). Used to be MIJ. Now it's MIT or MIC attached to the label. Lots of kids are drumming because of the proliferation of these inexpensive kits. Much like the early MIJ kit days ... that ain't a bad thing. I was one of the very fortunate ones to begin my drumming on a red sparkle Super Classic kit. I never had the early MIJ kit. I did purchase a bunch of them (and MIT and MIC kits) through the years. I give them to young drummers with promise ... after I gig them for a short bit.

thats nice of you too give them away like that.

Well if it's like most of the MIJ stuff of that period it's made of Luan Mahogany which really isn't mahogany at all but then neither is most other so called mahogany used in drums (even high end ones). In any case, that Luan mahogany has one great feature. After 30 or 40 years it dries out and hardens, giving it greater resonance than it had originally. I think this is one reason why those old MIJ kits are in demand now. I see them regularly sell on Ebay for anywhere from 200-500 which ain't bad given their age and supposedly "cheap" construction.

I'm restoring a set right now, and really looking forward to the finished product.

What other made in japan drums are there? I'm a begginer at all this stuff. Was there lot's of different brands of Japanese drums?

I've had so many MIJ drums in my 38 years behind the skins that I cant count 'em!!

Altho there are always exceptions, this is what Ive found:

1) MIJ Snare Drums suck. :)

1a) You can always buy MIJ drums for very cheap prices, as there is always someone who just wants to get rid of them.

2) With some work on the bearing edges, good drum heads and a careful tuning, these can sound very very good.

3) The down side....the hardware is usually el crappo

4) Because of the cheap hardware, you'll have a hard time keeping the drums in tune through a whole set in a club. Some guys dont mind retuning every 20 mins, but I do.

5) Drop a MIJ drum and youll probably crack the shell.

6) If you like to experiment with building, modifying and creating your own drum builds, start with a cheap MIJ drums and go from there. You'll have alot of fun and you will learn alot

Hey Retro, did you ever finish your Valencias?