Pearl Maxwin drums

supermac

Senior Member
They were my first proper kit back in the '80s.

OK, they weren't DW, but I remember them with affection and did lots of gigs with them in my teens.

Mine were black and big in shell size: 24 bass; 13, 14 and 18 toms and 6.5 metal snare.

Then I added 8 and 10 rack toms as I attempted Neil Peart-type dabblings.

I've no idea what the shells were made of.

Did anybody else use them?
 
Hello !

I've played on a Maxwin kit for more than 10 years when I began drumming...
A 20" bass drum, 14" wood snare, 12,13 and 16" toms. I played them with Remo Ambassador coated heads, quite high tuned... indeed they weren't DW or Gretsch... hehe...
I still have the kit ! It had a blue wrap when I bought it, then I put it off.
I'll post some pictures next week if you want.
Maarten

http://www.djembe-drumset.com
http://www.myspace.com/maartenschepers
 
Maxwin's were my first drums, and I still have them sitting in my basement. I dug em out and decided to restore them for fun just over a year ago. Exact same sizes as yours supermac, including the 8" & 10" rack toms. Mine are white wrapped though. I got mine as a second hand set back in the early 90's when I was starting out and never expected to still have em now. Especially after playing a lot of newer (not to mention better) kits through the years. They actually don't sound that bad with a good set of heads and some serious tuning. The hardware sure was crap though, I updated it all with better stuff during the restoration project. Can't believe they lasted as good as they did, they went all over the place with me and I used them in gigs right up through 2000 when I was playing in a jazz band.
 
heyeheyeheyeH MAXWINS ARE MY FIRST KIT NOW!!!!!! sadly i will sell them soon and unpgrade to something really good. I had one great gig with them last year. I am 15 now so my kit is old but in great condition I love my maxwin.
 
Maxwin's were my first drums, and I still have them sitting in my basement. I dug em out and decided to restore them for fun just over a year ago. Exact same sizes as yours supermac, including the 8" & 10" rack toms. Mine are white wrapped though. I got mine as a second hand set back in the early 90's when I was starting out and never expected to still have em now. Especially after playing a lot of newer (not to mention better) kits through the years. They actually don't sound that bad with a good set of heads and some serious tuning. The hardware sure was crap though, I updated it all with better stuff during the restoration project. Can't believe they lasted as good as they did, they went all over the place with me and I used them in gigs right up through 2000 when I was playing in a jazz band.

YES! they are longlife for sure
 
My first kit was called ROYCE, which is basically the same Maxwin kit.

Mine had small Rogers style tom mounts, not the bigger Pearl style tubes.

Do the kits you guys have use the smaller mounts?

I still have the kit, and the toms still sound good

Man I wish mine had the 24" bas drum!!

I had a 20" kick.

I used the Royce toms when I got better bass drums (used, in a super great deal) for a long time too.
 
Hey Guys,


Don't knock those Maxwin kits. I purchased a Maxwin kit piece by piece over eBay to refurb and sell as a pet project. Most of the pieces were in sad ass shape...but cheap and workable. The 14" x 20" bass was missing hoops, lugs, claws, and rods, some bright boy masked off the 8" x 12" rack tom and painted the wrap with light blue latex house paint, and the 14"x14" floor tom's bearing edges were some mouse's chew toy in a barn up in New York state for a few years. The 6" x 14" 10 lug COS snare was a mint bargain that I bought for $35.00 from a doctor on eBay who took meticulous care of it, and it looks and sounds great!

I stripped all the shells, recut the edges, filled any imperfections, sanded all shells to 800 grit in and out, stained, oiled, and sealed them, and left them to cure. In the meantime, I bought some upgraded hardware off of eBay like DW Pacific spurs, black maple bass hoops, chrome air vent grommets, plus all the missing hardware. After all the new hardware arrived, it was added to the existing stuff, and got cleaned and polished too. All shells got new white wraps, and got reassembled complete. I topped them off with new Evans coated G1's on the tops, Evans Ebonys on the bottoms, a 20" EMAD on the bass drums batter side, and an Evan's Ebony Pearl logo head on the front that I made myself with a dry transfer from Bodo10 on eBay. All the stands, throne, and pedals are Dixon light weight 700 and 800 series items, all the cymbals are used Zildjian ZHT's found on eBay at reasonable prices, and the cowbells and wood block are LP's.

Although this kit is nothing when compared to my higher end Tama and Pearl kits, it turned out great! It's small, portable, and easy to set up. It looks great in the white with chrome and black, and that's really nice for those corporate penguin parties! Because the toms and bass are made of Phillipine mahagony and have 45 degree edges, they have that really warm, deep, fat, rounded, vintage sound...and the steel snare cracks like a machine gun! All things considered...it really didn't cost me outrageous money because I did all the work myself, and I have the perfect 4 piece Be Bop kit to play my blues, jazz, and small gigs on. Will it be for sale now? Probably not, I'm to happy with the results. My cousin liked it so much, we're constructing a similar kit for him!

Don't knock those old Maxwin kits...with a little work in your spare time, and a few wisely spent dollars on eBay and Craig's List, they can turn out pretty good, and not cost ya your life savings! Think of it in these terms: It's like buying an old clunker at the junk yard, restoring it, and bringing it back to life. While it may not be a 65 G.T.O., it'll at least be a nice ride that everyone likes, but sounds a whole lot better! You can do this with any kit, and the satisfaction is your's because you did it! If you need a little inspiration, check out the first two pics in my photo album of the kit...I think you'll like what you see. Enjoy!
 
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I still have the five piece Maxwin kit my parents bought for me in 1988, they purchased it cheap second hand 'cause they thought the drumming thing was a phase. I love it like some guys love their first cars. I have bought and sold newer, higher end kits, but always have mad max in the corner of my studio. I know the kit, it is still in mint condition, can be tuned the way I want and I set it up often, especially when I'm working over new tracks. My Orange County kit performs better overall but I use the Maxwin snare to record when I need a certain crack or floor tom for a flat boom. The snare IS very capable and creates unique variations. Guitars like Fender Jags or Mosrites were cheap builds, but are now revered for certain qualities they possess.
Drummers who rubbish old kits like Maxwin are focussing on the tool not the tradesman, remember it's how you use it boys.
Maxwin kits may have limited tuning range or crap hardware and mounts, but they have flavour and a specific place, and I will never sell mine. I try to play with soul and any drummer who wonders where their first kit ended up, would probably love to see theirs again. My Maxwin is my talisman.
 
My folks bought me my first drum kit in the '80s. It was a white wrapped 5 pc. Maxwin with steel snare. The wrap had yellowed a bit and the drums looked off white. The toms were concert toms as the toms and kick had no hardware or bearing edges for a reso head. I had blue hydraulic heads on the toms. I sold the whole set-up, which included cymbals and nice Yamaha cymbal stands for $400 in the early 90s. This stock photo is the same model as the kit I had with a different color wrap.

maxwin.jpg
 
I've had my Maxwins my whole life, my dad gave them to me when I was 5 and I have been playing the hell outta them ever since.

I really enjoy them since they give off a nice deep vintage tone (hoping you all can understand that sound)

I'm getting a very Taylor Hawkins (Gretsch) sound out of them and that's what I was going for!

I use a Mapex Black Panther Snare along with it
Currently using Evans Coated G2's with an Evans Emad2 on the kick. G1's for resonances.

Cymbals as you might see are not exactly new... had them now for 15 years. Unsure about the exact series but they are Sabian cymbals and they sound great. The crash is a Sabian 16" AAX Studio.

My plan right now is to order a 14x14" matching black floor tom, unfortunately can't find one with Maxwin so I'm going with a "Road Show" floor tom. I have a 14" tom but its not deep enough to be a floor tom since it's 14" by like maybe 10. don't have the exact measurements. Also found two concert toms that i'll be setting up like octobans to my left.

My current band plays a Foo Fighters style of music so it fits my style nicely! Love Dave Grohl!
 

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Holy cr*p thread from the dead.
Sam I have to say your Maxwins are in the best shape I've ever seen for that brand of kit.
They usually appear in leaky woodsheds or used ads with lugs and hoops missing, rusted hardware, and duct tape and stickers allover them
 
Holy cr*p thread from the dead.
Sam I have to say your Maxwins are in the best shape I've ever seen for that brand of kit.
They usually appear in leaky woodsheds or used ads with lugs and hoops missing, rusted hardware, and duct tape and stickers allover them

Yeah not sure about the rules of reviving a thread but I'll be posting about this kit as I continue to build it more.

Been taking great care of it since it is my pride and joy.
 
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