Ah, very interesting!!! Thanks for posting this, David!

I'm wondering why,after all this question-conjecture buisness regarding a Pearl timeline on construction,badges,point of origin,stencils,etc,that SOMEONE at Pearl corporate hasn't taken notice and started a true,definitive history project.Not that STUPID-yes I said it-Pearl history page with misinformation,plugs for bands,etc.We are talking about one of the worlds largest producers of percussion equipment here-and they don't know or CARE to know their roots?Why do WE know more than THEY do?Lame

Most large corporations are forward thinking and concerned about how to keep their market share. Looking at the past and spending time and resources is not that important.

This is pretty common for most of the drum companies and why the main web site is so popular for people learning about history.

Plus, the history to them might not be a feature they want to or even care to share in detail if they think it does not fare well to who they are now as a drum company.

Yes, in many cases WE as a community do know more then they do and that is why they will eventually reach out to resources outside their company for information.

Ludwig uses Rob Cook for history on their web site. Gretsch also uses another collectors history for resources and badge timelines.

David

Know your past,lest you be doomed to repeat it.....

How much,in the grand scheme of the world,would it cost them in time, effort and money to do this-5 Exports-10 Exports-100 Exports?Osaka and Mikey know more than Pearlworld.Amazing folly on their part.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]OK, great info.. Because I have always felt prickly when someone used the script-badge oval badge to claim they owned a pre-60's Pearl. I have a PDF of a '68 Pearl catalog in which there appears very clearly this very badge on a Valencia outfit.

(A few years ago, Pearl actually had old catalogs up on their website in the History section).

So, the block-letter version predates the scrip-letter. I'll buy that.

Now.... the unanswered Q becomes when did that first badge END ? Because..... I have had a few singles come through here with the block-letter oval badge....they looked like any other '60's drum I had seen.

(Certainly Canoraboy's drum is earlier than the typical '60's Pearl, that just based on the throwoff alone).

But can we say with certainty that all block-letter badged drums put them in the (late) 50's ? Hmmm....

The Pearl website USED to have a BETTER history page than it does now, actually. It's gotten fancier, but its content has also been made less specific. Too bad.[/COLOR]

We are talking a short time-line here.

Taking in to account we are only talking about a small window of less then 4-6 years, the drums themselves would probably be the same, or close. (hardware changes of course)

I went ahead and put together Mike777's accounts of Mr Cooper here and combined his posts.

Yes, we do have to assume that Pearl was designing a badge and making drums on the home front prior to 1964. I would say based on the Mikey story they were planning on bringing drums into the USA after 1960 and they realized the potential really fast.

As historians, we need to set the timeline as fact and then as new history and evidence is unearthed the old fact becomes new fact.

This way as people search the Internet and find the history here we know where it started from.

There is a long lost section on the web site from an old Pearl employee, Roy Holliday. He had some great stories. I think I will email him. IF anyone knows him or lives near him, they need to document his life and the history around him.

David

This is really cool. As you all may know, My prefence is for Star drums and stencils. Now I am getting an even better idea of what my no-name kit is, and from when it dates. The throw off below, and some of the other hardware, which I will get later because I am in the middle of a complete lugs off restoration of the kit, appears to be a bit later than this one, due to the size. Not too much, and it seems to pinpoint my suspicion that this WMP kit is a very early 60s Pearl, and now possibly even 50s. I am very excited, and my kit is almost as pristine as his red spark. I am doing something to bring this kit a new life, and will unveil it later in the week, as it starts to come back together. I absolutley love the old style of cymbal arm clamp and bracket and other hardware parts on this kit. Sadly though I will not be able to use this throw off as it is pot metal and has some broken parts that preclude its use. Now that I know it's true age, I may well see if I can send it out for possible repair.

I must thank Kevin again for his patience with me at time he did not need to be patient, and apologize to him as well for not getting it taken care in a timely manner, but this kit is in the right hands, I promise you all. Maybe I need to keep that hoop after all.