Identifying Pacific Drum-kit!

Dr_Funky

Member
Hey, I was wondering if anyone could help me identify a kit for me. It's a silver pacific kit (when it was still called Pacific Drums and Percussion), but I have absolutely no idea what type of wood it's made out of.

Thanks in advance for your help.

*Note: Sorry for the bad image quality of the serial number. The number reads "10062".*

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I don't know the model designation, but I believe the 1st-gen Pacific kits were birch.
 
Well I'll take a stab at it.

From the photo showing the old style tom mounts used as opposed to the newer STM style that puts the kit at around 2002 to 2003. I got my CX maple in late 2003 and the newer STM mounts were being marketed in their catalog. DW was still selling add-on toms with the older mounts that they had in inventory. I know this because I ordered an 8" tom as an add-on and they sent me one with the older tom mount by mistake. Retailers only had these versions of Pacific kits if they were left over from older inventory.

I'm not 100% sure about this but I do believe that the silver sparkle wrap was only offered in the CX line and all those drum shell packs were maple.

You can also send an e-mail or call DW in California and they might be able to confirm based on serial numbers.
 
Based on the 2001 catalog, I would guess they are CX series based on the wrap finish. Silver sparkle is not in my catalog, but Pacific was fairly consistent about the CX designation as a wrap. The book says "composite" shells, which you can safely take to mean Birch/Basswood or Lauan/fill-in-the-blank. The clawhooks on the bass drum seem to indicate a generation or two prior to the 2001 catalog. Much more DW than the smaller type they have used for the last 8 years or so.

Sidebar: I'm also guessing that these are the Pacifics that made so many enemies here in the States where quality control and such were concerned. DW was still in the early stages of development for PDP, and the work was farmed out to whatever import maker was doing things like that at the time.
 
Based on the 2001 catalog, I would guess they are CX series based on the wrap finish. Silver sparkle is not in my catalog, but Pacific was fairly consistent about the CX designation as a wrap. The book says "composite" shells, which you can safely take to mean Birch/Basswood or Lauan/fill-in-the-blank. The clawhooks on the bass drum seem to indicate a generation or two prior to the 2001 catalog. Much more DW than the smaller type they have used for the last 8 years or so.

Sidebar: I'm also guessing that these are the Pacifics that made so many enemies here in the States where quality control and such were concerned. DW was still in the early stages of development for PDP, and the work was farmed out to whatever import maker was doing things like that at the time.

Do you have a link to that catalog by any chance? I have a kit very similar to this, cx series from about the same year but my bass drum claws are the solid type (not with the two hook type, as pictured). I have a blue-ish wrap but the texture is identical to this silver sparkle. I was pretty sure my kit was maple, maybe with a layer or two of birch. The badges are very similar to this kit as well, mine clearly say CX-Series made in taiwan, it's not clear what the smaller print says on these badges though. Either way, great little cheap kits.
 
I want to say that is a "F" series birch kit. If I recall the first gen CX was avail in Onyx white, Onyx blue and maybe another color which are maple kits.
 

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Mikecore's right, the kit in Dr Funky's photo is from a period prior to the CX/LX kits, and I do believe all Pacific kits were birch at first [hence no model designation on the badge], until the CX's, but I could be wrong. Art- they're not silver sparkle, just silver; the CX kits were originally just blue, white, & black onyx, with some sparkle finishes added later.
 
The best I could do was scan the catalog from 2001. This is what they were all about then.

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Well, I stand corrected, haha! I didn't know they had a CX series before the maple shells... "composite wood"?!? They've come a long way. I love my black onyx CX maples.
 
Well, Jon Dewey from DW replied to my message describing that the kit was part of the first generation of the CX series from Taiwan. However, he says that they are all maple shells, not composite, which is rather interesting considering the above scan.
 
Well, Jon Dewey from DW replied to my message describing that the kit was part of the first generation of the CX series from Taiwan. However, he says that they are all maple shells, not composite, which is rather interesting considering the above scan.

It's worth noting that what a particular drum maker sells in the States might be different than what's sold around the "international elsewhere", such as the difference between Pearl drums USA and Pearl drums Europe. PDP might have done maple kits for other markets around the world, but not having left America since 1998, I could not say for sure. All of my literature has come from the local shops.
 
This two as mine
 

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I gotta ask about my Taiwanese CX series kit - the serial numbers are very high - 106428 on the wood snare. Each shell has a different number too. The kit is a 14 snare, 10/12/14 toms and 22" bass. Would love to know when they were made and what they are made of - the wood looks very good.

Also have a 10" 805 black lacquered snare with no serial numbers - also made in Taiwan. Any info on these woiuld be highly appreciated...
 
The original CX/MX/LX maple and FS birch kits were made in Mexico. I don't know when manufacturing shifted to Tiawan. At some point it all shifted to China (by the time of the X7 and M5 models, I think).
 
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