Does Anyone Remember The Pearl Hybrid Sets?

Late 70's. They were wood shells with a fiberglass coating. Supposedly the best of both worlds. They sucked. lol They were gone within a year.

I'll bet that gimmick is so old it could be sold again now.

Sounds similar to the "Vibrafibing" that Neil Peart had done to many of his kits.

I've seen Pearl all fiberglass drums (Peter Criss' drums pictured in the ALIVE! insert book specifically) and the insides were actually pretty rough.

Pearl had a few short lived "experiments"...Extener, the Roto-Tom with shells...

I remember them

pretty sure Peter Criss played them for a while

I was a Peter Criss fanatic as a kid ....for what reason I have no idea....but I remember reading that he was playing this hybrid fiberglass/ wood kit

KarlCrafton said:

Pearl had a few short lived "experiments"...Extener, the Roto-Tom with shells...

Click to expand...

Pearl certainly tried to be inventive and innovative in the 70's, but wow, so many of their "inventions" turned out to be really bad ideas. LOL.

I have to say though, at least they tried to think out of the box.

Oh well, they certainly got their revenge in the 80's when they figured out endorsing drummers on MTV would lead to huge sales.

I owned one of those wood/hybrid sets in the late 80's. The fiberglass was on the inside of the shells. Yes, they were roughly layered and finished on the inside. They projected well (as single headed drums), but if the FG separated from the wood (from dropping them) they did not resonate well and often buzzed. The all fiber glass shells were LOUD! I've heard a set of Masters that were wood/carbon fiber. They were loud and sounded like the all FG but a lot warmer and project a hair better than a Reference (thick shell). I'm surprised not many drummers have these CF/wood shell sets.

when I saw the title of this thread I thought you were talking about the recently released acoustic/electronic kits. Does anyone have any opinions on these?

The only thing I remembered about them was that the electronic cymbals made a horrible pinging sound when you hit them.

I remember these. I really want a Vari-Pitch snare also.