Mid 80s Pearl Export. It was an upgrade from the 70s CB 700 for sure.
My first set was actually a nice Rogers 5pc in blue oyster I really hated at the time. It just wasn’t cool enough. A few year later I discovered how wrong I was!
Indeed it was, I started off with a Maxwin.That was my first set. Don't tell me yours was an upgrade - if so, from what?
Seriously great story man. Cool pic too.When I was in college I had an apartment in an old boarding house. There was a homeless biker guy who had serious bad luck, and he was welcome to sleep on my couch when I wasn't home. One day I came home and he smelled really bad, so I threw his boots out the window and told him to get in the shower or leave. He was profusely apologetic, kept saying he'd make it up to me and the others in the house. I didn't see him again for months.
A couple months later, I was sitting in my room and I heard Robin Trower's "Day of the Eagle" at extreme volume coming from the parking area. I looked out the window and there was biker dude with a Dodge Omni (of all things), with a thousand-watt stereo and the first car CD player I ever saw blasting away. He had a new leather jacket and a pistol. He yelled out "I got my court settlement, let's go buy you a set of drums!" Ok!
So we went to Rolls music in Virginia and got these TAMA Imperialstar/Swingstar drums, stands, H&B cases, Zildjian cymbals, the works.
I had been playing a set of "Gambles Import Corp." lauan drums since the mid-1970's. I thought they sounded fine but they were seriously ugly, faded sparkle and beat up when I first got them. I spray painted them once, and covered them with black contact paper later.
I lost track of the guy, but heard he went on to get an E.E. degree. View attachment 87554
I've been pretty lucky - as an adult "beginner" (I did a lot of fiddling around on the drums at school when I was a kid) I got into some semi-decent gear from the start. My first kit was a PDP FS series birch kit. When I got it the bearing edges were super sharp so I built a sanding table, flattened them slightly, and then rounded them with a block and fine grit sandpaper. They sounded really good when I got done with that.
I'm still playing my second kit - a Pearl Maple SMX Session Custom. I've had it since 2006.
This is the way to do it, if you can wait to be an adult!