New Forum User here..

Looking for some assistance identifying the finish and any other details I can gather on this kit. I would like to purchase an additional floor tom for this kit, but I don't know the finish or what's available. I was told this is 100% birch, it records amazingly well.. Better than any other drums I've had the experience of recording with.. Hence why I want to increase my collection of them!! Any help that can be provided would be much appreciated.

I believe the drum sizes are as follows. I've listed the head sizes first, the depth second (I could be measuring the depth wrong) and the serial number for each drum.

22 x 17? (023414)
10 x 9 (023311)
12 x 10 (023480)
14 x 11 (023436)

The snare drum I purchased separately it's tama but is a gray finish with serial number (010975).

They are Starclassic Performer, most likely 100% Birch, but dare I say, not definantly.

This finish is Transparent Black and was offered from 2001, which was the first year that the Performers were all birch. Prior to that the Performers were Basswood/Birch shells from 1997 to 2000, and are identical in a cosmetic sense to your drums. Performers actaully came out the year Starclassics were introduced (1994), but had other, more obvious differences until 1997, when the bass drum hoops were made of wood. Prior to that they were the Accutune ones made of plastic.

There is a way to tell the Basswood/Birch and 100% Birch shells apart and that is to look at the ply layup of the shell. Both shells were the same thickness but 8 ply for the toms and 9 ply for the bass drum in the Basswood/Birch configuration. 6 ply for the toms and 7 ply for the bass for 100% Birch.

Your drums don't have the rubber lined claw hooks or the sliding bass drum mount that were introduced in 2003, so your kit was made before that.

All in all, the likelyhood is that they are all birch given the Transparent Black finish, manufactured between 2001 and 2002, but if you want to be sure, count the number of layers in the shell.

Click ---> 1997 Catalogue - The introduction of wood hoops

Click ---> 2001 Catalogue - The introduction of All Birch shell

Click ---> 2003 Catalogue - The introduction of sliding mount and rubber lined claw hooks

That's a really nice set!

It has 8 lugs on the bass drum so 2001/2002.

You have to look at the tom holder, if it has a black plastic piece inside where the sliding tom holder goes it's from 2002. Before that there wasn't one.

FleaBay!

The China made Starclassic Maple kits have a badge on the outside of the shell held with two screws, where as the more sought after Maples that were made in Japan have the decal embedded in the lacquer.

Dennis

i have the same exact kit. i just bought a 13 inch tom and its a little different. the one i bought seperately i believe is all birch. but you cant really tell the difference when playing. im not sure about recording though.

The 1994 Performers with Accutune hoops were actually 100% Basswood - they were upgraded to Birch/Basswood when the Starclassic Birch was discontinued in 1997.