BACK IN BLACK: A TAMA SWINGSTAR

The very last drum kit I bought and cleaned up was this black Tama Swingstar 4-piece.  There was no snare included.  I jumped on it because the price and the shipping was very reasonable, and I thought maybe I could fix it up and sell it.  Well, I could fix it up all right, but I'm still working on the "sell it" part.

This set is a standard beginner set-up that should be suitable for some kid looking for a first drum kit of their own.  You know, a good starter kit?  Or maybe the "house kit" for a church that has multiple drummers that alternate Sundays?

These four drums, as far as I could tell from the photos, are in pretty good condition.  I didn't see any major damage or severe problems that would warrant bypassing this opportunity.

The main issue I did notice was the absence of several rims, or "hoops."  The round, metal thingys that hold the drum heads on!  Yes, all four were missing the resonant-side rims, as opposed to the batter-side.  In other words, the bottom hoops.  All the heads on the bottom sides of the drums - or the alternate head that one does not hit while engaged in playing the instrument - had been removed and "disappeared."  To this day, no one knows what happened to those heads and rims.  Who took them?  Where did they go?  Where did they end up?  Who has them now?  Were they re-used or destroyed?  By golly it's one of those "unsolved mysteries" old Robert Stack used to talk about on the TV.  Jeepers!

There was also the matter of floor tom legs and a tom mount.  Those had to be researched and rounded up as well.  Understanding Tama Swingstars are not all that rare or vintage, I was fairly confident I could find everything I needed somewhere online.  So off I went to do my thing.  While I am gone, let me entertain you and stretch out this article with a brief anecdote related to this project. 

There was a young guy with whom I used to work who showed some interest in obtaining a drum set.  He knew I was a former drummer and we had discussed my collection previously, so I offered to sell him this black Tama if he wanted it.  It seemed like he really did want it, but I knew he was married and had several.....like six or nine.....kids, so I imagined his wife might have a problem with him spending money on drums.  But he kept asking me about it, so I eventually just flat out said, "Look, dude, if you want the kit I will give it to you!  I don't need it in my house and you want it, so you can have it!  I want you to have it!  Please, just take it!"

But no, he wouldn't dream of taking it without paying for it.  I set a price of a measly two hundred bucks, much less what I had paid for it (plus new parts and heads, mind you).  He agreed and said he would save up the money and get back to me.  Months passed and we went back and forth a couple of times, and at one point even scheduled a Saturday when I would bring the kit to his house.  But shortly before the date he cancelled.  I think we had to work that Saturday.

Bottom line: I tried everything, and he never took the kit.  I was even willing to provide a stool and a kick pedal to get him started, maybe throw in some crap cymbals if he needed those.  Just take the dang kit, dude!!

Nah.  He never did.  I eventually just stopped talking about it and he never brought it up again.  That's my sad story of how I couldn't even give this kit away.  That's why I still have it....

....and will gladly sell it to you today for the low, low price of $750.00!  Come on down to the misplacedmtnman's Marvelous Museum of M.I.J. Madness and check out our cr-r-r-r-a-a-a-zy prices!  We've got too much inventory!  It's all gotta go!  We're making unbelievably amazing deals!  We are completely nuts!

But getting back to the riveting restoration process, finding the right tom mount on eBay was easy and only cost me 70 bucks.  Yikes!  Then I found a spare set of FT legs somewhere amongst my vast inventory and was able to check that off the list.  New rims for the toms came in just under 40 bucks - ka-ching! - and T's and claws for the front hoop set me back another 65 - ka-ching-ching! 

The only part that I had a little trouble locating and acquiring was the correct and proper bass drum hoop.  I had to have a vintage 1980s Tama Swingstar metal hoop in the right size and style which wasn't exactly easy but proved to be not impossible.  I managed to find one on Reverb and had to pay a painful price to get it, but it had to be done.  In fact, I had to shell out $125 for two hoops, one of which was the wrong style, but the guy refused to separate them out, which is absolutely his prerogative.  I had to buy the pair to get the one, and of course I'm the type of guy who's not going to let a little thing like money get in the way of a successful restoration.  That's why you are a smart businessman and I am an idiot.  But I have a lot of drums and all you have is.....wealth and financial security, a steady job, health insurance and a retirement plan.  Hmm.

Incidentally, all the new skins are some inexpensive black heads made by Drum Factory Direct (sort of generic alternatives to Remo Ebony heads) which behaved like mirrors in the "after" photo shoot so no, the front bass drum head is not adorned with an interesting pattern.  That's just the reflection of the patio blocks.  I am (obviously) not a professional photographer and this is just the best I can do for now.

On the kick side I blew the budget (even more) by choosing an Evans EMAD Onyx because I never do the pillow in the bass drum thing.  These heads with the "Externally Mounted Adjustable Damping" system are such an easy way to get a good standard bass drum thump with plenty of resonance and very little effort.  Typically I put one on, tighten it up and it's good to go.  I highly recommend them.

Not much else to say about this one.  Pretty quick, pretty simple and, I would say, a most satisfactory result.  This is an excellent 22/12/13/16 basic set up all restored and ready to play.  I just need to find a loving home for it.  Sell it, get it out of here and go find another one to work on.  The madness never ends....

BREAKIN' OUT THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BONGOS!

About five or so years ago, just before I gave up my good health and freedom to become a nameless wage slave at [company name withheld for legal reasons], I was happily patting myself on the back for successfully completing the surprisingly difficult task of restoring three sets of old, beat-up MIJ bongos.  However I never did get around to writing up a final report and featuring those projects on the blog here.  When I came across the filed-away "Before" photos in recent days, unfortunately I was reminded that I could dig those old bongos out of the storage unit, take a few quick "After" photos and subsequently bore you to death with the mundane story of "How It All Came to Pass," as Gandalph would say.

It all began one fateful day when I was placidly perusing the pestiferous pages of eBay, becoming increasingly wearied by the lack of anything interesting in the MIJ drums department other than the ubiquitous red sparkle snare drum with the missing wires and a broken head.  Seen it.  Done several.  Don't need any more.  Thank you and good day.

Then somehow, as if it were a minor miracle, a different type of Japanese-made drum popped up in my search results.  What's this?  A pair of MIJ bongos?  Cool!  Never attempted those before.  Shall I give them a go?  I say, old boy!  I believe I shall!  Pip-pip and Right-o!  Well played, my good man!

****Editor's Note: While I may offer no reasonable explanation as to why the discovery of a set of Japanese bongos resulted in the misplacedmtnman's inner monologue developing a British accent, past experience would lead me to believe he is padding the paragraphs of this article to make it longer, thus justifying the use of more photos.  Nobody reads the text anyway.  Let's just move on.****

As these things usually play out, once I had acquired one set of bongos, two more appeared in my feed, pleading with me: "Buy me!  Buy me, too!  Don't leave me here to die a slow death of deterioration and neglect!  Save me and I shall again be clean and playable!"

So now I have three sets of these unique drums.  Isn't that just thrilling?  Are you on the edge of your seat with excitement and anticipation yet? 

The restoration process for these instruments was the same simple and standard procedure I and the multitude of other restorationists around the world utilize to salvage abandoned and neglected things: Take everything completely apart, clean the heck out of every little nut and bolt and put it all back together again.  So why did I describe these projects earlier as "surprisingly difficult?"  Well, because there was one step in this process that proved to be most challenging to overcome.

I was at the point where I was ready to reassemble and it was time for the final finishing flourish: the drum heads.  So naturally I need to install new heads, right?  Just pop on some fresh skins and bongo my days away!  THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK!  The WMP and CSP sets had busted heads on the hembra side and the BSP had no heads at all, so out comes the measuring tape.*  I jot down the dimensions of the old heads and off I go to hunt down the replacements.  As it frequently goes with MIJ, I quickly realized there was an inescapable complication with restoring these bongos, and the probable reason why the previous owners hadn't changed out the skins.  In other words, "Indiana, I's got a issue."

Giant Obvious Spoiler Alert: Made-in-Japan bongos from the 1960s or 70s were not manufactured in exactly the same standard sizes as other bongos made by LP or Ludwig or what-have-you.  According to questionable sources such as Wikipedia, "Bongo drums are about 8 inches high and have diameters of approximately 8 in. and 10 in."  My bongos measure like....6-1/4" and 7-3/4"?  Double-you tea eff?

#@&%$?!!  The Japanese strike again!  As the Democrats would say, this was worse than Pearl Harbor....BUT I WAS NOT DETERRED!  I pressed onwards and I continued to search for the correct heads or more accurately, some damb heads that would work.  After weeks and weeks and numerous attempts and fails I finally discovered the winning combination that fit right.  Unfortunately this success occurred five years ago and I have regrettably forgotten the combination.

BUT....that's why eBay retains my Purchase History, am I right?  So let's go way back, all the way back to the ancient days of April 2021 when, exhausted and beaten down by the strenuous quest and filled with unrelenting doubt and despair, I clicked the "Buy Now" button on yet another 6" and 8" head to attempt one last time to complete my confounded inexecutable mission.  This pair, it turns out, are the only replacement bongo heads IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE that will actually fit my drums.

And the winners are: a 6-inch CP (a cheaper percussion line sold by Latin Percussion) and an 8-inch LP City Series.  Those are the only two that work....or should I say, worked for me?  If there is a better solution I sure couldn't find it.  Perhaps a custom set could be specially made that would be absolutely perfect, but at this point I was too tired of these projects and ready to move on.  I didn't pursue that route. 

And so now I am at long last finished with this trio of bongo projects, and even more tired.  I must go and rest so I may live to restore another day.....oh, wait!  A Black Diamond Pearl set just popped up on eBay!  Cheerio, old man!  I must immediately register my bid!  Here I go again.....

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* Just a quick explanation of the nomenclature: WMP = White Marine Pearl; BSP = Blue Sparkle Pearl; CSP = Champagne Sparkle Pearl.  Also, with bongos the smaller 8" drum is referred to as the macho (male) and the larger 10" is the hembra (female).  This, I feel, is a little chauvinistic, calling the fatter drum the female, but I didn't invent the distinction.  It also sheds a humorous light on the American phrase "macho man," a somewhat derogatory term attached to men who act too forward and/or authoritatively, when in reality it can literally be translated as "a male man."  But since the label macho is on the smaller bongo, to me it conjures up the image of a small man trying too hard to act like a big man, all while being attached at the hip to his larger wife.  I'm probably thinking way too deeply on this, but it made me chuckle nonetheless. 

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****ARTICLE UPDATE: I am happy to report that I did not remember to put a bid on those BDP bongos and totally missed out.  Auction over.  No drums purchased.  Everyone calm down and return to your regularly scheduled programs.****

THE RELUCTANT RETURN OF the mpmm

Hello there, friends, fellow-drummers and non-existent readers!  Wow!  Do you realize I have not posted on this blog since October of 2020?!  That's ages ago!  Five years gone!  Wasted!  Lost to the unalterable past!  Well, let's quickly review what has transpired this past half-decade to justify my unnoticed absence.

I got a job.

Yeah, that's it.  I actually got a real jerb.  And what a jerb it was.  Whew!  I became a Product Packaging Professional at Husqvarna.....meaning I carefully secured parts and accessories in cardboard boxes and shipped them out for the delight of paying customers.  The only problem was, I quickly discovered they didn't actually want professional packers, they wanted minimum wage workers to throw things in boxes and tape 'em up as fast as possible, customer-be-danged.  Not my specialty.

So, needless to say, as my "productivity" continued to disappoint high-ranking supervisors and number-crunchers who never packed a box in their life, I eventually got fed up and walked.  I hung up my yellow safety vest and left it all behind.  My skill was not appreciated.  I would like to point out, however, that not a single package created by me during my five-year tenure generated a customer complaint, had to be re-packed or came back damaged.  Just sayin'.

Now I am officially unemployed, without health insurance and teetering on the precipice of despair but lo and behold, I was able to retain this pair of lovely insulated drinking vessels sporting the company logo so hell yeah, baby!  I got that going for me.  I also kept my personal industrial-grade tape gun so I will live to pack another day!  That is, if I choose to, which I probably won't.

In the meantime I would like to announce that everything on this site is now for sale.  If anyone is interested in anything, let me know.  Thanks, the mpmm.

SENSATIONAL SILVER SPARKLE SPECTACULAR!

 I don't have much to say here.  This was another typical, routine restoration job that involved disassembling, cleaning, polishing and reassembling the drum without any issues.  All the parts were good and were re-installed.  I didn't even replace the existing heads because they still had plenty of life left in them.  I did utilize new tension rod washers and snare wires, but that's a normal replacement need.  Nothing tricky about that.  Cheap Japanese washers are always the first thing to rust and the flimsy original wires are always bent up and useless.

So without further ADD-EEW! here is the drum in its "Before" state:

And here is the drum after I have worked my magic on it:

Okay.  That's it.  Show's over, now move along.  Nothing more to see here.

GLAMOROUS GREEN GLASS GLITTER

If it is not completely obvious to you right off the proverbial bat that the above snare drum is BLUE and totally not GREEN, then please adjust the color on your computer monitor or immediately schedule an appointment with the nearest optometrist.  Yes, this freshly restored, beautiful Blue Sparkle Pearl snare drum is indeed "blue" as the nomenclature implies, but the reason it appears to not line up with the headline I have chosen is because this is only the beginning of the story I am about to relate, a riveting tale that no one is going to read or remotely care about.

Now that I have wasted time and filled up some space with a pointless opening paragraph, here is the brief anecdote that I decided to write to accompany my photographs.  This blue snare drum was just another of several.....and I do mean several...Made-in-Japan snare drums with a blue sparkle wrap that I have restored over the years.  In fact, if you knew anything about vintage Japanese drums you would definitely know that the most pervasive characteristic of them was their wrap finish.  Chances are that if you find one of these drums it's going to have a sparkle wrap of red or blue.  Those two were obviously just the most popular color choices of the time and so it stands to reason that more of those wraps survived until now.  I have found many gold sparkle drums, a few Champagne sparkles and a handful of other interesting "agates" and "pearls," but ordinarily I most often only encounter the red and blue sparkles.  It gets quite boring rather quickly to be honest.  I can't tell you how many drums I have passed up just because I seriously don't need any more reds and blues!

So when I reluctantly purchased yet another damn Blue Sparkle Pearl snare drum just so I would have something to work on, having been furloughed indefinitely from my job, I was delighted to discover the glue underneath the wrap had deteriorated to the point that the hardware was the only thing holding the wrap to the drum.

I already had concerns about the sticker residue (shown here to the left of the leftmost lug), which was probably the result of one of these dumbass antique dealers sticking a big ol' price tag directly onto the wrap.  Note to sellers: DO NOT DO THIS, you big dummies!  Now I have to figure out a way to remove the sticker and the glue residue without damaging the delicate wrap!  Not an easy task!

Besides that, there was this disturbing auction photo that clearly shows that the wrap has come loose near the Tone Control Knob.  I can see the head and rim has squeezed a portion of it away from the shell, and it is starting to crinkle and tear.

Bravely I took the risk and bought the drum anyway, hoping to get this instrument back on track by repairing the damage.  But, as I stated earlier, when I removed all the chrome hardware in preparation for cleaning, the wrap fell off.  This meant I could forget the BSP wrap altogether and start from scratch!  What an opportunity!

Naturally I would want to choose a new wrap that was more interesting and eye-catching.  Of course I'm not going to recover this drum with another blue sparkle wrap!  That would be monotonous!  No, I decided to go with something rare yet appropriate for the era.  That's why I went with Precision Drum Company's "Green Glass Glitter," although back in the day it would have been called "Green Sparkle Pearl."  The difference is GSP consists of green sparkles which produce a more subdued sparkleness, whereas the GGG finish also contains mirror sparkles in the mix which cause it to SPARKLE noticeably more.  It really POPS, unless you have a shitty digital camera from a decade or so ago that is completely incapable of taking decent photos of drums.

So there you have it.  Definitely not the most professional "re-wrap job" ever executed, but I'm happy with it.  It works.  If you could just pretend that those photos are totally awesome, that would be great, because I'm old and I'm tired and let's face it, I'm just not very good at taking pictures of drums with my god-awful camera.  I'm not going to stress out about it.  I'm done here.

WHY the misplacedmtnman HATES TO SELL

Probably the most misunderstood aspect of what I do here at the misplacedmtnman MIJ Museum is when people see my work and assume that after I have performed my miraculous magic and restored all these old drums to their original splendor, the next step is for me to turn around and sell these projects for a huge profit.

If only that were true.

No, unfortunately there are only two kinds of people on sites like Ebay: Buyers who want a "steal" on something valuable, and sellers who think just because something is "old" it is worth a fortune.  Therefore most of the time transactions are at a standstill and neither side wins.  Nothing gets sold.

For example, right now on Ebay I have probably a half dozen freshly restored snare drums up for sale.  They all have brand spanking new heads, new wires, spotless chrome, all original parts and are fully-functional, ready-to-rock.  My price?  $125.00 plus twenty bucks shipping.  Totally reasonable, right?  My mission is not to make a huge profit, but to at least break even while providing a nice, vintage drum to a fellow drummer and/or collector.

But I get nothing.  Very few views and maybe two or three "watchers" at the most.

Remember the "Experiment" I conducted with this Black Diamond Pearl Revere snare drum?  This drum actually sold, and I got my 125 plus 20, which barely covered what I paid for it and added to it.  Great job everybody!  Right?  Am I right?

Well, not exactly.  Turns out, this drum was purchased by a music store in Minnesota, and now they have re-photographed it (as seen above) and listed it on Reverb for $350.00.  Oh, swell!!

They also bought this Blue Marine Pearl Winston from me on Ebay, and have now re-listed it on Reverb for $225.00 (incorrectly as "Blue Onyx Pearl," by the way).

So see how this works?  Or doesn't work?  If I was barely able to sell to them for 125, there's no way in hell they are going to get 350 or 225, but maybe...just maybe there will be a sucker out there who doesn't know any better and will pay this exorbitant price.

But I don't blame the music store.  No, it's fine.  I love capitalism and if they can get that price for my work I say more power to them, because I have many more snare drums they should buy from me.  A whole storage unit full, as a matter of fact.  Let's sell them all and make ourselves rich, because that's the American way.  I'm proud to see my restoration projects being sold for these prices.

But are they being sold?  Or are they simply being dangled out there as "sucker bait?"  Is the average MIJ snare drum purchaser/collector who knows a little bit about Japanese drums really going to see these prices as fair and reasonable?

Here's another example, this time on the seller's end.  Remember the asking price I set in the examples above?  Well, say hello to a seller named "smile_its_free" who has this lovely White Marine Pearl snare up for sale on Ebay for only $149.00, which despite the seller's handle, is far from free.

Oh, and in case you are that brain-dead moron with money that they hope you are, the seller points out that this drum "could use a new wrap."

REALLY?!!

Yeah, and it also needs new heads, new wires, new rims, new t-rods and a shit-load of metal polish.  Basically what you are buying is a luan wood shell and some dirty chrome parts.  In my estimation, you're going to need about $149.00 worth of new stuff to make this $149.00 piece of shite presentable again, so spare me the "killer snare" comment posted with your ad.  Your drum is a beat-up, extremely-abused emergency case that in saner times would have been sold for $10.00 if the seller was a pothead who desperately needed a dime bag and his drummer bud just felt sorry for him.  Then the purchaser would either throw the poor thing away or toss it into storage to be forgotten.

Which, now that I think about it, is probably the case here.

Here is my final example of why the vintage MIJ drum market is bat-crap crazy and impossible to negotiate.  This is why I have a 10x10 storage unit FULL TO THE BRIM with Japanese drums and refuse to sell them.

This is a badly-faded, hunk-o'-junk U.S. Mercury four-piece.  It's supposed to be "Red Sparkle," not the interesting "Sunburst Sparkle" that it has become due to several years of neglect.

Now, I don't know a whole lot because I have only bought and restored thirty vintage drum sets and about 150 some-odd snare drums and toms, but in my humble opinion and from my decades of experience, this kit is in sound structural condition.  It has all its hoops and hardware, new heads and so forth, and I would be willing to reward this seller with a generous offer of $400.00 plus shipping.  I mean, the entire set-up really needs to be recovered but other than that it does have intact badges, the proper tom mount, FT legs, BD spurs and all that.

But no, this seller is demanding $850 plus another 150 in shipping.  That's a THOUSAND dollars for an old, severely-faded, luan-shell, cheap-ass Japanese drum set.  In what universe does this make sense?  Anyone (in their right mind) could buy a vintage American-made kit for the same price!  You could have a maple-shell Ludwig with a descent, non-faded wrap and rock-steady hardware for a thousand bucks!

Or could you?  I don't know any more.

That's why I am disheartened by the present state of the market.  I don't see drummers selling their stuff for sensible prices because they want to move up to a nicer, more expensive set-up.  Now I just see greedy "American Pickers wanna-bees" thinking they've scored an awesome find that they can peddle to some know-nothing for a huge profit.

I restore drums because I love the instrument and I want to see it used again as was originally intended.  I want to make these drums available again so kids who can't afford a thousand-dollar brand-new Tama or Pearl drum set can have something sensible to start out on.  Did you know that Neil Peart's first drum kit was a four-piece Stewart?  It was, because his parents couldn't afford an expensive American-made kit.  And Neil played that little luan kit to death, and went on to become one of the greatest, most-admired, most influential drummers of all time.  A legend that started out on a cheap-ass MIJ.

But now, sellers think those kids or their parents want to shell out a thousand dollars for a shit-kit like this.  It just makes me sad.  In my effort to provide my finished projects on Ebay for reasonable prices, in hopes that some kid can finally acquire some skins to bang on, my drums are only bought up by those who turn around, jack the price sky high and then hope for some doofus or perhaps a wealthy collector to come along and fall prey.

And ultimately, my work will more likely sit out there indefinitely on Reverb and Ebay, and the kids go play Xbox.  Again, I'm all for capitalism and I sincerely hope those snare drums are truly worth the asking prices.  I'm just a little doubtful.

Just one more photo to reinforce my point.  See this beautiful, jet-black Yamaha four-piece?

This kit is for sale on Ebay for $379.00 plus $163.00 shipping.

Is that MIJ kit above really worth twice as much as this almost-new Yamaha, just because it is so-called "vintage?"  I am not so sure.  I'd rather have the Yamahas, and I collect vintage MIJ drums!

Right now people are anxious and unsure when it comes to the economy.  Items in general are not selling on Ebay (I have things other than drums posted there).  My prediction is, this Yamaha kit will not sell, and the MIJ kit will definitely not sell.

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The misplacedmtnman is an anonymous individual whose opinions mean absolutely nothing to anyone.....ever.  Due to a lack of friends or a life in general, he wastes his time writing these ridiculous articles that no one will ever read on a website that no one ever visits, so even if he were to write "Fuck all you rioters, Biden supporters, and other traitorous, Marxist terror-supporters on the Communist News Network," no one would actually see it, comment on it, or know that he had written it.  There are advantages to being completely ignored by everyone in society at large, and a statement like that has nothing to do with percussion products anyway.  Oh, and also.....fuck twitter.

RE-VISITING THE BLUE AGATE PEARLS

 I know it has not been very long since I first presented this kit, but I have already made some improvements.  Since the original post here I have added another floor tom, not because it was needed or part of some plan, but just because when a drum pops up on Ebay and I can make use of it, I snag it.

So here are the photos of the updated kit.  Yes, I know these are horrendously crappy pictures, but it is muggy and stifling hot here, this is how the pictures turned out, and I am certainly not going back out in the heat to try and get better ones.  The blurry and poorly-lit ones will have to do.  Did I mention I have debilitating arthritis?  Yeah.  Nobody cares.

KIT SPECIFICATIONS:

• 14 x 20" Bass Drum
• 8 x 12" Tom
• 14 x 14" Floor Tom
• 16 x 16" Floor Tom
• 5 x 14" Snare Drum
• 5 x 14" Back-up Snare
• 3 x 10" Junior Snare Drum

This concludes this feature article.  This assemblage has now been documented and cataloged, and will be safely returned to storage until such a time as they are again needed.  The misplacedmtnman does not, and never will, really care what you think about these matters.