I have these 3 ply with rings (but mine is a Pearl made kit) - and I also have restored a Star made Majestic with the thicker shells - and grey painted interiors. I made sure the edges were good (true) and smooth (did not have to re-cut in this case) and installed Remo Clear Ambassadors top and bottom on the toms, SKI batter and single ply Remo 'Soundmaster' (with hole and installed weatherstipping) and tuned to the timbre-pitch of the shell (toms)....and they turned out sounding amazing! I believe the key is good edges.

I have not installed new heads on my thinner shelled (Pearl made) kit yet, but from what I have heard (read and 'heard'), the thinner ones resonate more and have a bit more full/bottom end to them. But, understand that while I have a preference for the thinner shelled with rings, I would not shy away from buying the thicker shelled kits at all. The (thicker shelled) Majestic I restored sounded good.....then got it to the gig, and that room.....sounded AMAZING! The 14x14 was the best sounding 14FT I have ever heard. But the jury is still out as I have not installed new heads on my Pearl made 14x14 thin w/rings yet.

BTW, I use studio rings after I tune for full resonance.

I hope this helps. Eventually you should get some more input here from other MIJ users.

Finally, I have a Star made kit that I am yet to finish. The shells do not have re-rings, but are considerable thinner than the Majestics. These are the thinnest MIJ drums I have seen without re-rings.....should be interesting when I finish it. I will surely report my result with pics and will include pics of the shells. Possible edge work and head expense is what is holding it up.

**footnote - the Majestic kit I restored and discuss here is the Majestic DELUXE model. The "Semi-Pro" is their other model....with the thinner shells w/ rings. I have never seen a Semi-Pro with the thicker shells....I believe that is the major difference between the Majestic models. Deluxe=thick, Semi-Pro=thin w/rings.

I welcome any other input, you guys - including correction so long as it is evidenced.

John

Thanks John for your reply. I was concerned that the thicker drums would sound dead with thicker shells and the round bearing edges. I love how your kit looks. It looks just like my Star except mine has a 13"16" and 22"

I prefer the thinner shells for toms, but I have run across Crown and Pearl 6-ply or more-ply older kick drums that have great tone across all dynamics and volumes.

The thing with the thinner shelled drums (3-ply Luan with beech/maple/?? re-rings, is that you need to be a bit more careful with them....they are delicate little dudes. But, like others have previously stated, the 3-ply 12x8's and 14x14's can be so sweet.....great near-field and projected tones. Mine are Pearl Valencias.

I have owned both vintage Asian mahogany shells; thin 3 ply with re-rings and the six ply without re-rings. I kept the old 60's 3 ply kit mostly for the cool tiger yellow wrap but they also tend to have more resonance. to tame them from over-ringing, I run emperor batters and ambassador bottom resonant heads.

LOL....saying "you have to be carefull" with the 3 ply Luans is an understatement. You drop one of those at a gig on a hard floor and you will probably end up with a cracked shell. Who needs that?

You know, I've owned 3 MIJ stencil sets, and I even restored them.

I played Gretsch round badge for years and now I play a vintage Trixon set at gigs.

My take is, life is too short to play those crappy MIJ drums, and the headaches they give you arent worth the cheap price. But...to each his own, as Jerry Vale sang.

I think you will find most drums will break if you drop them on a hard floor ;)

@Retrosonic

when you drop a Rogers tom out of your hands on the floor, it will also have a few damages, do you not think so?

Not a good argument, when you say all MIJ´S are crap. Because you know thats not true;-)

Most of the STAR stuff and even an old Pearl Maxwin can be fine Drums when you take care of them:-)Cool1

Disagree......a Quality drum shell WONT crack if dropped. Those Luan shells will crack if you breathe on them the wrong way.....c'mon guys.

Neither will the 6-ply MIJ shells with the grey interiors heh.

Thing about the 3-ply shells, the thinner they are [and there's all sorts], the lighter they are, so you know how that works wrt falling/impact. It's true though they are ridiculously thin compared to a real drum shell.

Puremusic, if you're already into MIJ, the 6-ply shells won't disappoint sound-wise. Definitely tougher for gigging too.

Mitch