Hy and welcome to VDF!Welcome

All i can tell you so far is, that the floortom seems to be older then the rest of the kit! The clear shells might be XP8 shells 8ply maple, very good stuff-the floortom seams to be a 5 ply with re-rings- it might be the case that the used an old stock to complete the kit like you already said.

The rest will tell you the Ploughman when he sees this:-)

Pics could be helpful;-)

regards

Christian

Here's a scan of a page from the 1977 catalog (the newest one I have on file). These aren't XP-8 shells but otherwise should be similar to what you have.

I'm not sure what the significance of no serial numbers might be. Generally they were there on USA made drums but I'm not that familiar with the XP-8 drums from near the tail end of Roger's existence. When I get a chance I could look in Rob Cook's Rogers book to see what it might say about that.

As far as the floor tom, obviously an older drum mixed in. That may have been done by the store that sold the set new or as you surmised is a replacement. I think less likely that it shipped like that from the factory as Rogers was making an advertising point about the all maple XP8 drums and so shipping out mixed sets wouldn't fit with that theme (although anything's possible).

Thanks for the welcome and replies guys!

The drums were advertised as XP-8 and the clear resonant head on the bass drum has Rogers XP-8 on it.

Here is a picture of the drum kit printed on the inside of the clear drums.

The picture is a lot darker than the actual color of the wood.

Thanks!

Factory set up is possible as you think during changeover period. Or replacement floor tom, either by shop or factory for damaged in transit shell. As long as all the badges say USA on them, then no worries.

The stamp you show is likely the original drum shop that sold the drums first.

The stamp you show is likely the original drum shop that sold the drums first.[/QUOTE]

The resonant head on the 12" tom is a clear Remo Diplomat with "Professional Drum Shop Inc. Hollywood California" printed on it.

Maybe the drums were sold from that shop and they stamped the drums.

Floor was added. Number on the floor runs to 1978/79. No serial badges very common for these years..... very late 79/80 into 81. They wouldn't have mixed these from the factory. No stamp on the five ply drum screams, I wasn't born with these. They are all USA made drums.

Thanks for the help guys.

I sent an email to the "Professional Drum Shop" to see if they stamped their drums.

I cant believe how good of shape this set is in! All of the hardware looks original, no pitting anywhere, the bearing edges are in great shape (although the floor tom edge has a few nicks).

The lugs and mounts all look like really nice pieces. I was really surprised at how light the hardware is. With as massive as it all looks, I thought it would be heavy but it is really quite light with the aluminum. Even the size of the floor tom legs are impressive. The bead blasted finish on the hardware is a nice touch. The chrome and blasted finish hardware against the shiny black just looks awesome! Like a hot rod. But I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know!

I'm not even sure what an American made all maple set of this quality would cost now.

Next up is figuring out what heads I want. I will keep the original Rogers logo resonant bass drum head and the brand new clear emperor bass drum batter head even though I normally like coated. None of the tom heads match either side so all new heads coming there.

Original heads: Top, white dot control sound. Bottom, Ambassador clears.

I have an XP8 set with 12, 13 toms and a 1414 floor tom. I have J1 Etched on top, and original Rogers Ambassador clears on bottom. I like that sound. It might not be yours.

I know some guys prefer pinstripes on top, but that isn't me. It comes down to what you prefer, and your style of playing.

The drums will sound very good with good heads.

Thanks for the head suggestions. I just went with a fairly standard setup of coated emperors on top and coated ambassadors on the bottom with my 6 ply Camco of similar sizes. I like the sound but have not had a lot of experience with different types of heads so will probably go with something different and be able to swap the different types of heads between the sets to see what I like.

I got a response back from the Professional Drum Shop and they do not recognize the stamp. Guess I'm not going to spend anymore time on it. Just chalk it up as a cool oddity.