'...Finally, looking at that last pic of the tom's mounting piece, the smudges in the wrap around the diamond shaped piece seem to indicate that there was possibly another type of mounting system on this drum, which tells us... ?'

'Actually B--this looks more like damage caused by the mount having been spun around in order to tighten it back up while looking inside the shell, not paying attention and scratching the the wrap. ...'

@ cn679:

I also think that jonnistix says is right. The tom bracket has the same shape like the bass drum double tom holder (although the rest of the set is not mine, one picture above seem to show that).

Yes, you guys are right, seems that the diamond shaped bracket scratching the wrap is the most likely cause of the smudges. However, as we have seen Pearl mounts on Star drums and Star mounts on Pearl drums, isn't it possible that this drum was ordered from Star without a mounting system of any kind (no mounting holes) and was drilled for a Pearl mount later?

You see, my hang up is the lugs. Ralf, is there any reason to think that the lugs might not be original to the drum? If it looks like they may not be original, then I would say yes, this is a Pearl made drum. If the lugs do look to be original, then what other way could we account for the Star lugs on a Pearl drum?

Those are the exact same lugs on the toms as my "new" kit, and the bass lugs are the exact same as my on son's Majestics. And I am pretty dang sure it is Pearl, just from the pipe tom mount. Oh, and that wrap on those two look extremely cool, I love it! But, as we know, they both used some great wraps.

This is leading back to my theory, that there had to be an independant foundry that made all of the lug casings and other drum hardware. Tom mounts, brackets, rail and consolette parts and as they are from both Pearl and Star, copies of Slingerlands for the most part, I really am beginning to think they took what ever was poured and ready to go at the time they placed the order for more parts, because it seems Pearl has a wider variety of parts on them than the Stars did from the same period. Now, one thing I have NOT seen mixed on the two is the end cap on the rail consolette from my Majestic and the Star. That one part seems to be very consistent with Star drums. What I am saying is that since Pearl was probably outselling Star 3:1, there would have been higher demand and lower expectation. In other words, I think Pearl would take just whatever was available at the moment.

Now, back to Ralf's OP, I really think this to be a matched Pearl set moreso than I would think it to be a Star, purely based on the pipe tom mount. This is something we are all pretty well certain of: Pearl drums always had a pipe mount option, well maybe not ALWAYS, but from a lot of eras. It is getting very muddy here the more we all search and dig. Just think about this: 6 months ago there seemed a definative line in the sand where the differences were pretty easy to delineate. Now that more and more of these old MIJ kits are surfacing in playable, restorable and collectible condition, and we are disecting them, they get closer and closer to each other with the exception of some little, obscure difference that comes to light on one drum that says "I am a _______, not a _______!!!"

Agreed, jonnistix!

Ralf