Anyone owns a vintage Pearl kit?

[Jazzhead]

I’d say maybe Japan made models, pre 90’s?
Please share a photo.

 

[jptrickster]

Roadside pick my wife found on her daily walk during covid
I like ‘em! '84 vintage

 

[supraphonic]

I’ve got this early 80’s MX series kit.
Made in Japan. They are great sounding drums and I love the sizes.
22x14, 8x12, 9x13, 14x14, 16x16

 

[stevil]

Here's my late 60's Pearl phenolic kit at a session a few years ago. I love these drums. Great tone, project like crazy. These were rehabbed and rewrapped by the folks at Revival Drums. Very cool set.

 

[Rockin' Billy]

Pearl Modern Jazz outfit. Sound great.

 

[K.O.]

I have a set of the early Pearl fiberglass drums (mid 1970s) but I reworked them into something that doesn't look like Pearl. I have other Pearl FG drums that I haven't redone....yet.

 

[idrum4fun]

I had this beautiful 1968 Whitehall 4pc set, which was a stencil set built by Pearl. All the brackets had the "Pearl" logo on them! This was the only year that utilized the Rogers-style mufflers! I sold it on eBay back in 2009. The buyer was Bermuda Schwartz! I had no idea it was Bermuda until he messaged me that he'd like to pick up the drums in person! We spent about a half hour together. Bermuda is a really nice guy!

-Mark

 

[Jazzhead]

I’ve got this early 80’s MX series kit.
Made in Japan. They are great sounding drums and I love the sizes.
22x14, 8x12, 9x13, 14x14, 16x16

Nice kit, what does the label say on the floor toms? “Maple shell”? Also, I see a tag inside one of the floor toms on the shell, what does the tag say?

 

[Jazzhead]

Roadside pick my wife found on her daily walk during covid
I like ‘em! '84 vintage
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Nice workhorse kit, are the toms 12 and 13 or 13 and 14?

 

[UptownShakedown]

Roadside pick my wife found on her daily walk during covid
I like ‘em! '84 vintage
View attachment 591815 View attachment 591816 View attachment 591817 View attachment 591818

Loving the straight stands.

 

[makinao]

I do. An early 1970s Thunderking 5-piece. But it is unrecognizable now. None of the hardware survived, the wrap started cracking so I removed them, and the 12" and 13" toms started ply separation. I just re-wrapped the floor tom (still sounds great) and the kick with vinyl stickers, and changed the lugs because many of them were cracking. Didn't bother to re-attach the badges. The 4514 steel snare is still going strong, albeit very scratched. I have a frankenkit now, and use whatever parts I need for a given situation.

 

[supraphonic]

Nice kit, what does the label say on the floor toms? “Maple shell”? Also, I see a tag inside one of the floor toms on the shell, what does the tag say?

Cheers. Yeah, the toms and bass have the little ‘maple shell’ badges. They have been lost off the rack toms. The inside labels are inspection stickers. I’ll get a better pic for you tomorrow.

 

[jptrickster]

Nice workhorse kit, are the toms 12 and 13 or 13 and 14?

12/13
I like horsing around on them thx!

 

[Jazzhead]

I do. An early 1970s Thunderking 5-piece. But it is unrecognizable now. None of the hardware survived, the wrap started cracking so I removed them, and the 12" and 13" toms started ply separation. I just re-wrapped the floor tom (still sounds great) and the kick with vinyl stickers, and changed the lugs because many of them were cracking. Didn't bother to re-attach the badges. The 4514 steel snare is still going strong, albeit very scratched. I have a frankenkit now, and use whatever parts I need for a given situation.

Early 70’s Thunder king, with the battleship lugs?
What finish was it originally?

 

[KevinD]

This is my 1982 Pearl MX set in "Blue Flash." I got it new from a local drum shop and teacher ( who had played with Stan Kenton at one point) when I was 16. (I had
The typical 80s "way too big" set up (not power toms thankfully) 10" through 15" toms, 22 BD. Shells all say "Made in Japan."

I gigged with this for 5-6 years (as a 5 or 6 piece) after that, they it went in to cases at my folk's house where they sat for about 20-25 years for the most part, before seeing the light of day again.

In the past few years I've been gigging up in that area (Hudson Valley, NY) so I've been using them.

The setup shown is the picture marks the ONLY time since I've owned it that all the drums were set up at once...my practice room in my house was too small to set them all up, and I didn't want to lug all of them out to gigs. (liked playing 10"12',14" up top mostly).

I've recorded with them a few times and the engineers have really liked the way they sound.
Thankfully they are in pretty good shape, but starting to see some cracks in the wrap here and there ...age catches up to all of us I guess.

A month or so ago I had an outdoor gig so I decided to once and for all set up all the drums together - as they were originally intended.
All the stands in the photo are from the original set up as well. (snare is different though).
I let another drummer sit in and he had a blast with all the drums. The 14" and 15" sounded really deep and full.

 

[Seb77]

12/13/16/22 early 80s 6-ply maple, trad. depths, in rosewood lacquer. Well-used when I got it a few years back, but cleaned up nicely (I put die-cast hoops on the toms from another kit).
edit: paper tags saying "M" inside the tom shells. No metal badges mentioning the shell, otherwise similar to the pics in post #3 by Supraphonic.

 

[makinao]

Early 70’s Thunder king, with the battleship lugs?
What finish was it originally?

Yes. Battleship lugs, red oyster wrap.

 

[dharma bum]

OK. 1973, and around 1999. Think I'll pull them out again for some gigs soon....

 

[JimmyM]

OK. 1973, and around 1999. Think I'll pull them out again for some gigs soon....

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Where’s the headstock on the guitar? A headless hollow body?

 

[Jazzhead]

OK. 1973, and around 1999. Think I'll pull them out again for some gigs soon....

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That 1973 photo is amazing!!!