How old are these sessions??

[pearlygates]

Hey guys, I have an oppurtunity to buy this kit and I wanted to get you Sessions experts' take on this kit before I do. The pics are from the owners camera and I had to resize them which made 'em alittle grainy.

Anyway can you guys tell by the badge and the fact that the 12, 13, toms have the standard thru shell (not ISS or Opti) mounting.?
The tom arms look to be older school uni lock.
The finish is an ebony see thru lacquer and dude says the kit is in top shape.
The kick is a 16x22 and the toms were not specified as to their depth.



Guy is asking $500 with no snare. He added on the 10" tom from a later year. (The badge on that drum is gold and reads "prestige session select") The badges on the 12"-22" are silver colored and read simply "Pearl Session series" (sorry about the small pics..it's the best I could do)
It is 10,12,13,16ft, 16x22
Is their any way to know what wood the shells are made from?

Whatta ya think? Good buy? or pass?

[pearlygates]

*bump*

[bigtone23]

Seems to be a good deal from what I can see.

The Prestige Session Select were 7.5mm, 6-ply: maple inner and outer plys with mahogany (luan) inner plys. They were around only in 1998-2000 or so. I know this because I have some. If I remember correctly, the PSS were the first series within the Sessions to have maple plys.

I think that this generation of Sessions are from 1996/97ish, just before the PSS, judging by the badges looking similar and having shell-mounts vs the ISS of the PSS. I think they were 7.5mm, 6-ply too, but had birch inner and outer plys with the same mahogany/luan inner plys. If not birch, maple. The color is "Ebony Mist" and also pretty sure the toms are 12x10, 13x11 and 16x16.

Nonetheless, if they are built like the Prestige Session Selects, and they probably are, they are great drums that sound good. PSS are known to be a bargain in the Pearl Line, these Sessions can't be too far off of that. $500 may be a touch high if they are not pretty much brand-new looking with great heads and round hoops. $400-425 would be my comfortable range.

[pearlygates]

Well, I'm gonna go tomorrow evening and look at 'em. I will no doubt take my digital camera along and post some better pix. If they are all dude says they are and from what you said, I'm gettin me some sessions!