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Hello,
I'm new to the Pearl forum, but have played for many, many years. The only other Pearl kit that I've owned was a mid-80's Export that I bought new, in a red mahogany or something lacquer finish. Then I got into vintage Slingerland's, Gretsch's, & Ludwig's.
Anyway, I'm not too familiar with Pearl of any era, but had always wanted a set like Topper Headon from the Clash played. So I started looking for an older fiberglass kit that was in need of work. His set was chrome wrapped. Not a fan of the finish itself, I was looking at using silver sparkle. A couple of years ago I found titanium sparkle on sale at Precision Drum, so I went ahead and bought some sheets, figuring I would save it for my future Pearl fiberglass kit.
Unfortunately, I was never able to find one that was in bad enough shape for me to rewrap. I couldn't bring myself to tear into a perfectly acceptable drum.
A few weeks ago, I was searching the web again, when an add came up for a Pearl USA Maple set in gloss black popped up on the local Music Go Round. I knew Pearl had it's US headquarters in Nashville, but had no clue they actually made drums there. A quick google search brought me to this site, and some good information about the drums.
Not to go into the whole history, but these are Keller shells manufactured to Pearl's specs. For the price, I figured I go ahead and take a look at them. I went to the store, and negotiated the price ($250), and came home with a 9X13, 10X14, 16X16, & 16X24 set of USA Maples.
I'll load some pictures later, but the black wrap is / was cracked all over. But the shells and bearing edges are in great shape! Luckily, whoever owned these never took off the bottom heads and threw them around. Some of the chrome is pitted, but no real rust to speak of, and the original Pearl 2.3 mm Super Hoops are still with the set.
I'm toying with the idea of filling the tom arm holes and putting new Optimounts on the 13 & 14, but still undecided. Same with the bass, filling the tom mount holes. Or, I could leave the holes and just cover them? I've done repairs like this on vintage drums, so it doesn't scare me, but those were to fill incorrect holes. In this case, I would be changing the drums from original so I'm still undecided.
Drum porn to come.....
Thanks,
Steve
I'm new to the Pearl forum, but have played for many, many years. The only other Pearl kit that I've owned was a mid-80's Export that I bought new, in a red mahogany or something lacquer finish. Then I got into vintage Slingerland's, Gretsch's, & Ludwig's.
Anyway, I'm not too familiar with Pearl of any era, but had always wanted a set like Topper Headon from the Clash played. So I started looking for an older fiberglass kit that was in need of work. His set was chrome wrapped. Not a fan of the finish itself, I was looking at using silver sparkle. A couple of years ago I found titanium sparkle on sale at Precision Drum, so I went ahead and bought some sheets, figuring I would save it for my future Pearl fiberglass kit.
Unfortunately, I was never able to find one that was in bad enough shape for me to rewrap. I couldn't bring myself to tear into a perfectly acceptable drum.
A few weeks ago, I was searching the web again, when an add came up for a Pearl USA Maple set in gloss black popped up on the local Music Go Round. I knew Pearl had it's US headquarters in Nashville, but had no clue they actually made drums there. A quick google search brought me to this site, and some good information about the drums.
Not to go into the whole history, but these are Keller shells manufactured to Pearl's specs. For the price, I figured I go ahead and take a look at them. I went to the store, and negotiated the price ($250), and came home with a 9X13, 10X14, 16X16, & 16X24 set of USA Maples.
I'll load some pictures later, but the black wrap is / was cracked all over. But the shells and bearing edges are in great shape! Luckily, whoever owned these never took off the bottom heads and threw them around. Some of the chrome is pitted, but no real rust to speak of, and the original Pearl 2.3 mm Super Hoops are still with the set.
I'm toying with the idea of filling the tom arm holes and putting new Optimounts on the 13 & 14, but still undecided. Same with the bass, filling the tom mount holes. Or, I could leave the holes and just cover them? I've done repairs like this on vintage drums, so it doesn't scare me, but those were to fill incorrect holes. In this case, I would be changing the drums from original so I'm still undecided.
Drum porn to come.....
Thanks,
Steve
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