Have Yourself a Merry LITTLE Christmas....
This is what happens when the mini-drumset you said you were putting together for your grandkids actually becomes a toy for yourself.
STAR RED MARINE PEARL "JUNIOR" KIT
10 x 16" Bass drum
3 x 10" Snare drum
5 x 9" Tom
10 x 10" Floor tom
The grandkids are getting Barbie dolls and Tonka trucks. I'm keeping this until they're old enough to appreciate it.
In the original restoration write-up, which is way-far back in my blog posts where no one would care to find it, I described the main difficulty in fixing up this kit: the 9-inch rack tom. Somehow I managed to find two 9" Remo heads (for top and bottom) and overcame this obstacle. I think they were actually banjo heads but nobody really cares so here's the video of me "toying" around on this kit after I added some small cymbals, a little cowbell, a mini set of chimes and a baby bell tree:
I sincerely hope you enjoyed that. Now go have yourself a merry LITTLE Christmas.
MAKING A GOOD RESTORATION EVEN BETTER
The original restoration attempt, which is covered a couple of posts earlier and can be viewed if one is willing to scroll downwards a little ways on this incredibly interesting weblog, was a decent attempt with barely acceptable results that I always felt could use some improvement. Well, here was my opportunity.
Since this snare wasn't generating a whole heck of a lot of interest so far in my Reverb shop, I figured I had time to completely disassemble it, attempt this new method and get it all back together again before anyone tried to purchase it.
Needless to say (but I will do so nonetheless), the results were quite impressive and thrilled me to no end. This will absolutely be a method I use from now on, and in fact I have gone back to other projects to improve on them as well.
So without any more unnecessary build-up, here are the new updated photos that I have taken and uploaded to my Reverb post.
That's all for today. Go away now.
RANDOM RESTORATION: A BSP TEMPRO SNARE
And just to prove that I can be as irritating as others, I even added some obnoxious copyright-free pointless music in the background.
You're welcome. NEXT!
RANDOM RESTORATION: ANOTHER BSP SNARE
Yeah, I know it's another Blue Sparkle snare drum, but this one has sort of a turquoise vibe going on and it was only 35 bucks, so I confess: Yes, I bought it. So now that I have resterred it, I want to show it to you. Instead of just posting a bunch of boring photos I decided to do something entirely different and make a video montage....of the boring photos. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is that video:
You will appreciate the fact that I did not insult your ears with some random copyright-free music inserted into this video, because I don't like when people do that....and I can't figure out how to do it myself. I thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoyed the show. Now I have to go begin work on ANOTHER Blue Sparkle snare drum that I bought because....I'm just stupid like that.
RANDOM RESTORATION: 12" BLUE SPARKLE PEARL TOM
HOW IT STARTED:
HOW IT'S GOING:
Now the wrap and all the chrome has been shined up, proper parts have been installed, new heads put on and this drum is ready to rock. What I haven't shown here was the lengthy process of disassembling all the lugs, de-rusting the many springs, swivel nuts, bolts and washers, hand-polishing all of it thoroughly and putting it all back together. But I'm the only one who cares about any of that.
What next? Well, this one gets placed on the stack and I go to work on the next one.
And I'm sure you can't wait to hear about it....
THE THREE STEP PROCESS: A STEWART METAL SNARE
STEP ONE: BEFORE
THAT'S BASICALLY IT.
ON TO THE NEXT PROJECT....
The misplacedmtnman's MASSIVE MIJ MIGRATION
As I reported in an earlier post, I am currently between jobs and not generating any income for now. This creates a monumental problem for the MIJ Museum, because I had stashed all my inventory in a 10x12' climate-controlled storage unit close to my house, and that convenience doesn't come free. When I checked the current status of my bank account, I immediately came to the realization that this expense was going to rapidly decrease my available funds. The rent for my storage unit, which was initially around $200 a month when I first moved in, has slowly risen over the years to a quite unreasonable sum over $400. When I had a job making so much money I didn't know what to do with all of it, this expense wasn't an issue I dwelled on much, not having another better option I could think of at the moment. But at this point the situation is desperately critical and I had to do something fast.
Selling everything would take too much time and cause such intense internal pain that I would probably never recover from it, so it was obvious what I had to do:
MOVE EVERYTHING OUT. NOW!
That's what I have been doing for the past few weeks. Hauling drums out of the storage facility and lugging them back to the house, up the stairs and into a spare bedroom. I guess my brother will have to sleep on the couch when he visits at Christmas. Oh well. So be it. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
This task is not so easy for an old man with bad knees. Heck, just moving the Tamas and the Ludwigs took an entire day (those are my biggest kits). One by one the MIJ kits slowly came home: back and forth to the facility, up and down the elevator (my unit was on the 3rd floor), in and out of my car, up and down the stairs, stacking and re-stacking, moving and shaking and whatnot.
At last it was all moved, and I relinquished my possession of the storage unit. All done. No more rental fee. I settled down on the couch to rest my knees and back, and catch up on some YouTube videos, feeling ever so relieved and thankful that I have a loving, understanding mother who would allow me to use her upstairs spare bedroom as my new storage facility. Whew, was that a major undertaking!
Not five minutes into my first video, I turn to see my dear old mother standing there with a concerned frown.
"You know," she says gently, "I had no idea you had that many drums."
I know, I know, I thought, I am a complete idiot.
"So I was just thinking," she continued, "All those drum sets are going to put a lot of weight on the dining room ceiling below. I sure wouldn't want that ceiling to start sagging and.....well, you know....."
"Yeah," I said, "Hopefully I can sell some off pretty quick so that....."
"Well, in the meantime," she interrupted, "It would probably be best to move most of them downstairs. Just in case. I would feel much better about it."
I died a little bit inside. Of course, I would never be able to live with myself if my stupid, irresponsible drum set collection caved in my poor old mama's house that she graciously opened up to me out of pity. So for another week I trudged up the dadgummed stairs hauling most of the drums I had just hauled up there back down to the first floor. Hours and hours of cleaning, arranging and re-arranging the "Entertainment Room" finally resulted in converting this area into a giant Drum Room.
And now I am officially, absolutely and most definitely THROUGH moving drums. I am "all in" as people used to say. Now all I have to do is find some loving homes for them to go to. I'm not sure how long it will take or if it's even possible at all, but I have to at least try to sell off as much as I can.
For now, here is a quick tour of the misplacedmtnman Massive MIJ Museum in its present state:
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.
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.
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.
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.****
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? 
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.
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.....
_________________________________________
* 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.
_________________________________________
****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!
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!
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.
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