Welcome and you better get looking for some cymbals while your level of luck is holding out! Love the wrap on the Pearls.

First:

[SIZE="4"]WOW! WHAT A GREAT KIT!!!! THAT WRAP IS WHOOHOO!!! I've always liked those lugs. NICE FIND![/SIZE]

Whew... okay, got that over with! Yeah, welcome to the joint! I get up to the Portland area to visit old musical friends every so often. There are some great drum shops up there.

Congratulations! Ya did fine...

Thanks! Yea, I'm definitely thinking a lot about cymbals. I live with another drummer who knows the guy who started Heartbeat cymbals. I used to use Meinl Byzance series, but have actually found their classics to sound great for the price, and they're hand-hammered in turkey as well:

20" classic crash (medium/thin): http://heartbeatdistributors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/HB-20in-Classic-Crash.mp3

15" light hats: http://heartbeatdistributors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/HB-15in-Light-Hats.mp3

22" Medium Ride: http://heartbeatdistributors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/HB-22-Medium-Ride.mp3

We'll see where I actually end up.

Thanks a ton! Yea, I was blown away by the wrap, it looks fantastic in person. Portland has been great so far, been here about a year. I live with a touring drummer and we live two doors down the street from one of the founders of Revival Drum Shop here in town. Good city for music!

Yep, those are 1969 fiberglass shell Pearl Presidents in Gold Grain plastic covering. 1969 was the first year for the "ball and socket" tom holder and the first year for the special "President" snare strainer and unique badges .There's a lot of confusion about the President line and I've discussed this with Gene Okamoto from Pearl. I purchased a new 1969 President kit when they came out and I still have the catalog. On the front page inner leaf there's a box describing the new President Fiberglass shells five year guarantee against warping, breaking or damage from water, heat or cold. the catalog goes on to talk about all of the new improvements for 1969, of which there were many. On the back of the catalog it lists the colors available. The interesting thing is that Pearl often changed the names of their plastic coverings from year to year and catalog to catalog (and there's more than one 1969 catalog!).

The confusion stems from the fact that the Pearl timeline suggests that the President line debuted in 1966 (this may be true as I have worked on some older Pearl drums that had horizontal grained wood on the inside and outside and was not the usual vertical Luan shells that most of their older drums have), but there's no actual badges or hardware differences on these drums. I guess Pearl wants this to remain a mystery as they won't actually explain any of this. the 1969 Presidents had a chocolate brown fiberglass shell rather than the later wood/fiberglass compound which was prevalent later in the early 1970's. They also made true fiberglass drums later too, but it was a different formula than the 1969's (kind of a caramel semi opaque color). I'm pretty sure they used this later formula for a few years, but I've never seen them badged as "Presidents". I can attest to the quality of the 1969 Presidents as I still use mine regularly. The tom holder is chromed brass. I did replace the cymbal, snare and hi hat stands with later models (1974 I believe) and I use a Caroline bass pedal and I've re-covered them a few times throughout the years. But the rest of the kit is stock.