Star. The way to tell is by the badge. World's Supreme", And the other one, it says something else like it.

And the Bass Ts, they are the Timpani style tension rods, in the catalogs from the very early days. Man, you gyus are so lucky! I can't find any of these old kits down here. And when they do pop up, they usually ask for way too much and get insulted to find they aren't the worlds rarest $500 MIJ drums, that they are really only worth 50-150 bucks....mostly.

20-12-14? Are they 3 ply? And yes, it is too high. I think 150 is at the very top of his game. And the strainer is not original. It is a new model from the drum builder sites, or GC.

Looks like the snare is missing the badge as well. Just noticed that.

Edit: They are not 3 ply. There are no rings inside.

Think I will pass.

Thanks!

Adam

Make a low ball offer.You never know how anxious he might be for a quick sale.

On this kit, it is all about the sizes, and for gold spark, or gingered ale silver spark, those would be a good investment, for the right price. If not 3, they are 6 ply mahog, my son's are those and they sound good. I have rounded the edges on the bass and toms and they have a tighhter jazz sound, as they should for those sizes. This floor tom tho, might be better off with the 45. And the snare, it is not the greatest, but if reworked it could sound good as well. But 225 is over the top for those. I paid 50 for ours, and that was 20-12-12-14 and snare, with the 14 ft a 3 ply shell.

Seems like the guy selling them sorta doesn't care about collector value. He bought them for his son to learn on and his son has graduated to a vintage Ludwig so he is just selling these to someone else who might wanna learn on em.

They do have all new heads which adds some value. We will see if he sells em or not in the next week or so. If he comes down on the price I just may pick em up. Who knows.

Definitely 20/12/14 tho...

-Ad

I have a 16" US Mercury floor tom - Super thin 3 ply - the 2 outer plies are about as thick as the wrap, the middle seems less than 1/4". - I couldn't believe it was so thin; it feels like I could snap it with a bear hug Eye Ball - It does have 3 re-rings.

I dig it! ~ Only $15 !

Skinny Sonor-style lugs. I've seen them called Star lugs, too. - - Also on the forum, I've read that US Mercury was either a Pearl or Tama flavor - though Pearl seems favored.

Can anyone clarify here, re: the original Star or Pearl question? - Like, if the Sonor influenced lugs are Star, who made Star?

I guess my confusion comes in part from the "Supreme Quality" phrase. From the MIJ badge page - Champion, Lyra, Werco, Star, Revelle, Astro, Ideal, Drum Craft, Apollo & though not pictured, the non"PRO" version of US Mercury, all have the same basic badge - including the "Supreme Quality" phrase.

Was Pearl the parent company to all of these as stencils, Star included? Or were all of these makers different - just having the same source for "stencil" drum badges? :p

Great Googly Moogly! I'm mystified....Coffee Break2

btw - from what I know of my MIJs - that price does seem steep :2Cents:

Star is the company that actually made these stencils, all of them. Star is the company we now know as TAMA. Anytime you see those Sonor style lugs on these MIJ, they are a Star stencil, usually Apollo or Stewart.

Pearl also made many stencil brands as well, and they even share some of the "brand names", as some of the distributors jumped back and forth, seemingly. Also, in the later years, after '72, Star left the field of stencils mainly to Pearl and Hoshino as they were concentrating efforts to gear up the new company, TAMA.

Glad you like this drum. It will serve you well, and for 15 bucks, you scored! Now, if you want some pointers, in order to keep this drum and get the best out of it, I would tweak it. This is how we tweak these 3 ply shells. I usually sand the interior using 100 and then 220 grit. After that, apply one good coat of lacquer to the interior. If the edges are clean, I would smooth them, closing the grain with 220 and then coat them along with the rest of the interior, it makes it easier for the head to slide over and tunes up easier.

If, on the other hand, the edges are not what you like, I would use TAMA Starphonic contour on them, and do it by hand. Since this is a three ply shell, it probably looks like an early Ludwig edge and should sound good as is, but will sound better all tweaked up.

WOW Jonnistix, YOU WOK! ...er or the Japanese equivalent. ~ That clears up a good bit. So... regardless of the US Mercury name, it's a Star drum (proto-Tama) - Cool! :Snow Flake:

- - I have read of the Pearl / Tama back and forth - no wonder it can be a tad confusing. - - I'm guessing that my Merc is a 60s drum, but none of my mij's [Dixie, US Merc, Unknown] have any indication of date. The only mark in the Merc is a circled letter A. - - All 3 of my mij's are red crushed glass.

It's interesting that my unknown brand 12" tom is almost identical inside to my Merc. ~ same re-rings, same luan finish.- Aside from some orange oil, I left the insides as is. The only thing I tweaked on any of them was evening out the Dixie's bearing edge - it was pretty rough. For the Merc & the unknown, just a light going over with a Scotch-brite pad to gently smooth. - - I do like your lacquer idea though - it makes total sense. A thing for the future....

As stated, the Merc was $15, the Dixie snare was FREE, and the 12" ride was under $24 (incl. s/h) on eBug. My aim is to do the cocktail thing w/ the 16" for a groovy little kit. Just gotta invert an old FREE Ludwig low grade pedal.

I'll post some pics at some point.

COOL - Thanks for the excellent info Jump For Joy

ya know, i keep telling myself "i have enough drums" - but these MIJs are getting addicting Sumo Dude

The thing about them, I keep saying it. If they are worked right, and carefully tuned, they can make a great, inexpensive gigging kit. And they look great, so many people can't tell, and you get to keep to your irreplacable American Vintage drums away from the road as much as possible. Soon, they are going to be the "in" thing, and the prices will go up, but as long as the Luds and Slings and Rogers keep coming up from the basements for reasonable prices, we are safe. I am gathering together a few sets now so that I have a nice selection to keep for cheap. There is a Star set or three I am looking for right now. They made some 16 and 18 bass kits in the late 60s and I want to get my hands on one of each. Very hard to find.

Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it. If you have trouble with anything, just ask, I am willing to help anytime!