Hello,

Some may know me from my web site, dedicated to Star drums.

I have a question to those of you who can shed a light on St.Louis Music Supply Co., MO, assuming that they were a key customer for MIJ drums at that time (?).

Acc. to the 'sticky' information here about vintage Japanese drums - excellent job, by the way - to me it appears that SLMS had contact both with Pearl and Star at that time.

But it is irritating to me, that SLMS mentioned features on Hardware parts both from Star AND Pearl, on the same 'Apollo' pages ... As an example, I mean the 'Apollo Hardware' catalog page from here, to be seen in the middle:

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/japanese_drums/catalog_apollo-1.html

Especially the double tom holder at the bottom of the page is clearly Pearl made (Maxwin) - and all the other mentioned parts are clearly Star made. SLMS state that the parts belong to different 'Apollo' drum kits, obviously made either by Star or by Pearl.

Another example:

www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/apollo_catalogs/apollo_flyer2-6.jpg

Pic above: a Star made kit,

pic below: kit made by any other manufacturer, but not Star.

Obviously SLMS had no rigid separation between their Japanese suppliers Star and Pearl, when offering complete kits on the market ... ?

Or did they buy just the parts from Japan and assembled the kits by themselves, in USA?

Many thanks for your input in advance!

Ralf