roncadillac
Platinum Member
Same here!! My first kit was a Tama Swingstar, just like in the pics. That vintage blue wrap... Not a bad kit at all for the money. With proper heads on it, it sounded decent. The worst part of the kit was the tinny cymbals that came with it. Yikes...
When my mom bought that kit for me it actually didn't come with cymbals. To make a really long story short, she drew a winning ticket at an event she was attending for work and won a really fancy guitar amp courtesy of the local mom'n'pop gear shop (Dave Phillips Music and Sound, Phillipsburg NJ). When she went to the shop to claim her prize she explained how appreciative she was however her son is an aspiring drummer with no cymbals so she will probably just sell it. They felt bad and offered her a set of cymbals in place of the amp! So I ended up with 14" new beats, 16" A medium thin crash, and a 20" zxt medium ride for free! Those, along with the swingstar, was the foundation of my drumming.
On the toms, I remember that kit really liking pinstripes, black dots, and pretty much any 'standard' 2 ply head. The bass drum would choke a little bit with a 2ply so I usually stuck with single.
If I could find a deal like OP's on a swingstar today... I would nab it right up.