Hello mike17,

Yes I have seen the horizontal grain on the inner ply

It was also a Pearl script logo kit

I am not much of a wood guy so far so I will assume it is beech

Does the bass drum in question feature 10 lugs per side?

The snare drum if present as well?

On my kit that inner ply with the horizontal grain

has a few cracks running along the grain as well

I would guess due to age or temperature extremes over the years

I would've said Birch. I have also had a set with a birch inner ply like Kenwood's set.

Yep would be Japanese Birch, for the most part the timber used in drums up till the early 80's was purely geographical

Thanks for jumping in guys. Both those kits look birch to me too. However, these are 100% beech, no question. I have seen horizontal grain on MIJs, and the aussie is right, most of the wood used in vintage drums was regional, that is why this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. These shells are very well made, very, very heavy for any MIJ drums and are in amazing shape. Yes, 10 lug bass drum, no snare came with the kit. I will try to grab some pics in the next day or two.

This just has me curious as to WHY this kit is beech, it makes no sense. I have probably handled 150ish MIJ kits over the last 20 years and this is the only beech kit I have seen. I'm leaning towards this being uncommon.

Will update when I have some pics to share.

Posting clear pictures of the interiors will really help to see what you've got. I'd also like to see the hardware...lugs, badges, tone controls, etc. I'm also very familiar with the shells that were being produced during this time period, so this kit really intrigues me!

-Mark