Congrats!

Looks like you got yourself VERY pretty snare! I love the strainer mechanism.

These lugs actually DO have springs inside holding the inserts. I took it apart to clean it and was actually very surprised to see them! The only thing I am still unsure about is if the muffler is original????? Its a weird little rubber ball instead of felt.

Looks like it is definitely a Crown drum according to those pics. Any other info on these things? Value? I assume no more than $50 but it doesn't matter...I am going to keep it anyway. It is too cool!

Thanks Guys!

Adam

You know, these are the ones that would maybe bring the most because of the coolness of the strainers, but if we, here on this forum, try to keep the pricing down, and people look for values here, we can at least keep the MIJ drums affordable so that many more collectors can participate in the preservation of Vintage drums. I cannot afford to collect USA, so these are the only viable option for me, and if greed is allowed to grab MIJ, then we will all lose, as there will be fewer to trade. People will think they can get 500+ for these and will keep them locked away in anticipation of huge money, and then when they are disappointed at the lack of response to their stupid CL ads, we suffer as they decide to let them gather dust rather than allow us to restore and enjoy them. That is why I am so adamant about keeping these drums priced at no more than 250 for complete kits, and maybe as high as 300 for absolutely immaculate examples. If we get greedy, and the rest of the world sees it, we will never get our hands on these wonderful old instruments. I am lucky in that my two old MIJ kits are in such good condition, and I would love to get all the big money the American drums bring, but if that were the case, then I could not afford to collect at all. I get prime examples of really great snare drums for 50 and less, in many cases much less, and when I am done restoring them, they sound great.

Not sure what that rant was inspired by...but thanks for sharing your opinion on how the market should be regarding these drums. I definitely agree. Keeping the value down on these drums is a good idea in order to keep collecting them fun. Paying USA prices for these drums would be ridiculous and I simply wouldnt do it....I don't think anyone would.

Honestly, I don't think we have to worry about these drums getting too expensive. They really just aren't that nice of instruments to command big bucks....to me they are more of a visually interesting and fun to collect novelty than anything else...so keeping them cheap makes collecting a huge pile of the coolest ones you can find that much more fun and possible.

Mint examples of really rare or strange wrapped complete kits or something I can see being worth some bucks down the line, but even then....its more geared towards people that are really into the almost comical parody factor of some of these drums rather than an actual "quality" collectable vintage drum thing.

If you guys are into guitars at all it is kind of the same thing with the lawsuit Electra, Greco, Aria, Tokai etc brands from the Motsumoku factory in Japan in the 70's. I get a huge kick out of the lengths they went to copy American products. In some cases they made better instruments than Fender and Gibson were making and they are still actually affordable...unfortunately I don't think anyone would say the same thing about stencil drums! The quality just doesn't compare to vintage USA drums...but that doesn't mean they aren't equally as cool...and with a little work they can sound fantastic!

.

Anyone else on if the muffler is original?

-Ad

Hey Ad, The muffler is the right one[a copy of a gretsch 1960-70s] its missing the felt pad--pad would be about 3/4" wide and 4" long and should have a piece of metal under the felt..Thier maybe a screw under that piece of rubber,you may be able to add the missing pad...if not i have those mufflers if you need a replacement..Mikey

Sorry, didn't mean for that to sound like a rant...

Anyway, I have seen recently too many people trying to get over the 300 amrk for even the most mundane blue spark, and such. It pains me, but they are out there. Also, in the Wichita, KS CL, there is a set of Yamaha's with a Ludwig old school logo on it. I wrote the seller an Info-mail to let her know that although they are not Luds, what she has is an early example of a really nice set of Yamaha drums. She sent a nice little email back informing they are indeed Ludwigs, and was invited to go.....well do some unspekable and unnatural act...

It's cool Jonnistix, no worries what so ever.

I hear you and I think we agree completely.

Mikey777, I don't see a screw under the rubber bumper....and it doesn't seem like it was "fixed" by anyone. Basically the rubber bumper fits into this little metal "bump" on top of the muffler. It seems that it was always this way...fits perfectly...like they were made for eachoter....unless the original screw that the muffler was on broke and all that was left was this little "bump" which they found a little rubber stopper to throw on. It really seems right though.

How much you get for one of those mufflers?

-Adam