I've been experimenting with a tuning technique which I find produces fantastic results on these old cheap sets. Basically the key is using very thin heads (Diplomats, or Genera Resonants) on both the bottom and top of the toms.
It seems to produce superior tonal definition and boosts overall resonance. It's a bit tricky because there seems to be a fairly narrow band of pitches (generally fairly high) at which you find a sort of perfect "sweet point" in the tuning.
But it seems to make these cheap old drums sing like multi-thousand dollar vintage name brands. Has anybody else tried this, what kind of results did you get?