Also note that the advertised kit has dampers but it`s still an orderd kit and anything could be, so to say it`s dated wrong buy anyone but Clark, is not save to say !!

I also don`t see your wrap Mangus in any of the fifty seven fifty eigth cat scans !!

Henk would know all about this though or at least much more than I !!

That wrap was used by at least 4 companies between 1955 and at least the mid-60's. Without a chart of finishes ,it is hard to say what was available and then there are special orders too.

I checked out as many Kenny Clarke pictures and videos as I could find. He seems to be playing kits with the older lugs on them up until 1964 and I see mostly sparkle kits and one W.M.P. By 1966 he is playing Premier. I didn't find one pic/vid. of him on teardrops.----perhaps i missed.

Yesterday, I wrote the Hungarian drum museum asking about how they have dated that kit to 1957. I'll report back as soon as I have heard from them.

/Magnus

I love the drummuseum. It is truly a unique collection of some rare and not so rare European drums but it wouldn't be the first time that there were mistakes in it.

I guess you are referring to the tom mounts being the more modern, boat shaped ones? It's the same mount on both the bass drum and tom, offset on the bass drum and no evidence of any changeover. I would assume that the tom and bass drum came as a pair, along with the parallel drop snare. The condition of the wrap matches, over all the drums. My lock nuts for the spur feet are the thick flat ones but with a raised centre on the one side. There are also completely flat ones.

Here is a theory about my drums being metric. Oddball, you say that there was a surplus of metric shells( leftovers are still in storage). The realization that plastic heads(which had become universalized) were here to stay ,must have affected the decision makers of various companies slowly, over a period of time.Perhaps, Sonor's style, was to make a lot of shells in advance. Tromsa's response was to continue with calf head manufacturing in house, where they probably made both metric and inch heads but to add plastic head manufacturing to the line. Apparently, they switched over in 1959 but they probably continued to use up the metric shells by shipping them out with calf heads, as they were ordered. Likely for a while, each company ,offered calf or plastic. It would seem logical to ship calf on metric and plastic on inch shells. Each company hoping to use up the metric shells in that fashion. My bass drum probably came from the factory with calf heads and either the tom and snare did originally as well , shortly thereafter being refitted or at the time of delivery to the customer, a decision being made to swap over to plastic. By the time the earliest Sonor inch drums were coming out ,Tromsa was supplying the Sonor branded heads, so a Sonor dealer would have had Sonor plastic heads in stock.

In the first 10 or so years,after the introduction of plastic heads, there was a lot of suspicion about them and taking them on the first time must have been a big decision. I'm sure some customers made that decision, right at the music shop. There also may heve been promotions , in order to get people to try them----because I'm sure the dealers could see the writing on the wall.

I wouldn`t exactly call it a surplus,..more like a collection of .."keep some`s" !!

How long have you had this kit ?

Trixon ad featuring Karl Heinz Weimar promoting Remo heads in the early 60's/late 50's

http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/showthread.php?133582-Old-Trixon-Vox-Catalogs-and-Ads&

Yup,..those heads are water proof,...but the lugs and shell are not !!