^^^ agree ^^^

Currently, Westbury, CB Percussion, Network and RB, among others, all look like the exact same kits, with different lugs and branded pedals packaged with the same shells, wraps, stands, and heads... I'm sure there are others

I am pretty sure you have seen those lugs before - they were on the Luxors we discussed some while ago. And also on the Luxor I bought before Christmas from Gerd Stegner:

http://www.gratisimage.dk/image-ACAC_4EE9BE63.jpg

The tomholders are something new he fitted - just making sure it doesn´t go down in the historybooks, that Hoshino invented the "L-rod-in-plastic-ball" tomholders!

These lugs are on most of the Hoshinos we have in Denmark - often sold under the Santana or Aria badges. And good lugs they are too, don´t break up. The sharktooth ones are cheap and nasty.

And I agree wholeheartedly with Calfskins points. My interest in these kits are solely sentimental - my first kit was such a Hoshino. I was sooo happy!

Regards

Jon

Calfskin, I appreciate your points and agree with some of your premises, but what we have seen from the MIJ stencil heyday (early-mid 60s through the mid 70s) doesn't quite jive with your main point that the companies could make anything the customer wanted, your "bottom up" theory.

For instance, while Japanese makers did produce copies of the Gretsch lug for a time, they seem to have only been produced early on, and mainly for the Japanese market only. You see very few drums in the US with these types of lugs. Same with the Leedy and Rogers copy lugs. To my knowledge, there are no Ludwig copy lugs, and I have to think that if the stencil importers could have had them, they would have wanted them, with Ringo being all the rage and all. But the Slingerland copies, as we've seen, are over-abundant! There's an early Pearl design, the Star design that we see over and over again, and (my personal favorite) the heftly later Pearl version that was in production until they got the Pearl name big enough for them to get out of the stencil game in Japan and ship that production to Taiwan.

So I dont necessarily think the importers could custom order anything they wanted. I'm sure they had a few simple choices, ie: do they want sets with the Sonor tear drop copy lug or the Sling copy? or, Disco ball, battleship, or Sling copy? And, of course, they could slap on any name they wanted.

And finally, unless there's something I'm missing, the sharktooth lug seemed to be a new design.

Sorry B, they did have an option sheet. I was in contact last year with an original rep from one of the biggest importers...he has passed and I did not keep the email, but there were many options. Most 60s distributors chose the Sling copies on Star stencils because they were so inexpensive, and on Pearl stencils, the US courts decided they were different enough to not make them a trademark infraction. There are lots of Gretsch copy lugs, but not the others. Ludwig, Gretsch and Rogers would not put up with the copies and sued every time the MIJ tried. We got mostly Sling and Sonor, because Bud Slingerland was a notorious cheapskate and Sonor was not registered as an American corporation in the 60s, therefore the copyright infringements.