Come on Wayne...CB? Vintage...I guess since they are made into the mid-80s, they COULD be considered, based sheerly on age, uhhhggg, vintage....my neck is shuddering to consider that thought...but vintage, I guess even nasty wine has a "correct vintage"...if you truly understand the word "vintage"...here is the Merriam Webster definition of the word....uhg.

"(1) : a season's yield of grapes or wine from a vineyard

(2) : wine; especially : a usually superior wine all or most of which comes from a single year

b : a collection of contemporaneous and similar persons or things : crop

2: the act or time of harvesting grapes or making wine

3 a : a period of origin or manufacture

Wayne, CB 700 drums first came out in the mid 70's they had 9 ply shells-{same ones that Pearl used on the Export drums}- As you know C.B. 700 were made by Pearl M.I.J...The first ones made had a round looking lug some what like a Camco lug.Then they change the lug to a copy of the Pearl lug like you would fine on Pearl badge drums,this change was about late 79 or 1980...Mikey

My first kit was a gray CB700 kit with some thrashed Sabian cymbals, which I got for $40 at Goodwill -- it was supposed to be $50, but their registers were down, so they couldn't give me change.

I definitely made the best of them and played them to death -- unfortunately their best wasn't much. The nicest part about them was the '69 Ludwig Pioneer that came with it!

I'd guess mine was an early 80's model, with pretty shoddy construction and edges. They could be tuned to sound OK, but they were pretty unforgiving and ill-defined tonally (which drum am I hitting again?). Perhaps they got "better" later on...?

I would probably keep looking, even for another MIJ kit. The '68 Pearls which I replaced them with was worlds better. There's definitely a range of quality within luan drums.

I owned a mid-70's 12/14/20 red sparkle CB 700 set that I was going to use for GB gigs-UGH......all the tone of a cardboard box.Pawned for food shopping money during a bad month.They were very primitive drums.Open luan grains,furry bearing edges and the Pearl Swivo copy mount without the backing plate inside the bass,so the mount would eventually bend and strip out.They WOULD have been a good set to set on fire during a wild rock show-just don't put them out at the end....

I also have a mid-70's Red Sparkle CB kit with the Swivo copy tom holders. 8" x 12", 9" x 13", 14" x 14" with a 14" x 20" bass drum.

I got mine for $90 on craigslist, with a B/O Badge Ludwig Acrolite and a Slingerland Tempo King Pedal. All of the bottom/reso heads and hoops were missing, and about half of the bottom/reso lugs were missing. I planned on re-selling the snare and pedal (and getting my money back plus) and just junking the rest.

Well, you know how that goes. I started to clean them up and once I saw the newly clean sparkle in the light smile back at me, I began to fix them up with some TLC. I agree that the bearing edges are awful (there is pretty much no bearing edge) and the wood can be soft, especially at the bearing edges. For the most part though, the shells were structurally solid. I shored up a lot of the bearing edges with some wood filler and polyurethane (for strength). Those Pearl copy lugs are readily available new, and I sent the drums to Precision Drum Company to have the bearing edges re-done. I also replaced the Swivo copy tom holders with a Pearl BT-3 bracket and a Yamaha Triple Tom holder (yes, a new hole in the bass drum-closer to the reso head), and I mounted the two toms on Yamaha YESS mounts.

I covered up all the exisiting holes and put suspension mounts on the toms. I upgraded the floor tom leg brackets, shined them all up, and put new hoops, heads and tension rods on everything. The result?

They sound GREAT! Very fat and punchy; just what I need for my rock gigs. I am using Coated Ambassadors top/bottom on the toms (with a Coated Powerstroke 3 batter on the floor tom) and Coated Powerstroke 3's on the bass drum. The bearing edge re-cuts made an enormous difference in the sound and tuning ability of the drums. I played a gig last weekend with them where I was mic'ed, and the drums sounded awesome. Something about that soft and "stringy" wood really helps absorb a lot of sound, so I can play them wide open, but they still sound fat and warm with plenty of resonance and sustain, but yet still controlled.

I know that it seems like a lot of time, effort and money to spend on fixing up "junk" drums, but considering they polished up nice and sound great (and the fact that I got them for $90-I got $40 for the pedal I sold-so a net of $50!), I think it is a fair price to pay for a excellent sounding and nice looking gigging kit. I know some people on here will probably criticize me for even using these drums, but hey, I like them. Some will also say that I will never get back what I put into them, but I don't really care about re-sale value. I plan to keep them for a long time. And they really do sound great. And the red sparkle looks super cool under stage lights. To me, a cheap set of "junk" drums that I put a lot of my own work and money into is just so much more meaningful than buying a more expensive kit with no character or "personality". Plus these bearing edges are probably even better than on a good quality kit. These drums have a lot of my personality all over them, and that's what makes them "cool" to me. I have fun playing these drums, and isn't that what it's really all about?

I'll post some pictures this weekend if anyone wants to see them.

Sorry guys, not trying to be a pain...just had a bad day when I first replied. Wayne, please forgive me being a smart-ass.

WANTED Inexpensive but functional snare drum

I will be in Kanata this weekend and am looking for a snare drum for a grandchild.

I am very price sensitive so it needs to be a very, very inexpensive snare.

If you have such a thing please email me with details

Yo Jonni..Your word is gospel when it comes to MIJ gear,so no problem,but it is nice to hear stories from guys who tell us exactly what you,ve been saying all along.Those old "worthless" tubs can be a diamond in the rough every now and then:)

[COLOR="Black"]" I covered up all the exisiting holes and put suspension mounts on the toms. I upgraded the floor tom leg brackets, shined them all up, and put new hoops, heads and tension rods on everything. The result?

They sound GREAT! Very fat and punchy; just what I need for my rock gigs. I am using Coated Ambassadors top/bottom on the toms (with a Coated Powerstroke 3 batter on the floor tom) and Coated Powerstroke 3's on the bass drum. The bearing edge re-cuts made an enormous difference in the sound and tuning ability of the drums. I played a gig last weekend with them where I was mic'ed, and the drums sounded awesome. Something about that soft and "stringy" wood really helps absorb a lot of sound, so I can play them wide open, but they still sound fat and warm with plenty of resonance and sustain, but yet still controlled.[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Red"]One of the things you all forget, and I am guilty as well...is what we have learned over the last 25-40 years. We really did learn how to tune that little POS monster we got for Christmas in 1966....come on, we hated it because we couldn't tame it...now we know how, and they are treasures. It's not that big of a deal...[/COLOR]