It's a stencil kit, Mij, Mia, Mit made! Imports! the Import experts will chime in on this for you! oh Welcome to the forum.

Welcome! Nice wrap! This is an early stencil kit. Likely made by Pearl pre-1967 1/2. If you could show me the lugs on the bass it would help. The K in the tom shell has always been a mystery to me, I have several toms that have had this letter, and usually this tom has a nicer interior veneer, maybe maple or poplar, some tight grain wood. The shjells are 3 ply asian "mahogany' and these will have a deep, resonant tone, booming like thunder. There are many ways to make these cleaner sounding, more predictable tuning. They are not really worth a whole lot. Are they complete? All hoops, cymbal mount, etc?

Here are some more pictures!

There drums are not complete. I do have the tom holder but there was no cymbal stands or any other kind of hardware when I bought it. Except for the bass drum spurs and floor tom legs.

In another forum, someone replied that the K might just be a quality check stamp and another one suggested that it could stand for Kingston drums, which were made in Japan.

Apparently, everyone seems to agree that it was made somewhere in Asia.

Hi pierreantoine! nice kit .Can you see the wood grain through the wrap?

Sweet drums! This set is Japanese (MIJ) and was made by Star (the company that would later become Tama.) The rack tom mount is a Star design, the lugs are Star's Slingerland copies, and the octagonal floor tom leg mounts are Star's (except the actual Ludwig replacement one on there.) I think the metal plate on the inside of the bass drum is a Star thing as well, but Pearl may have also done that at some point, I'm not sure.

This set probably dates somewhere around '67-70/71 (best guess.) Most likely, these drums originally sported the black oval "World's Supreme Quality" badges with one of many, many names on them.

Again, awesome set! Love that wrap!

Well, they are certainly made in Japan. The K has nothing to do with the maker. It is a production stamp, and there are only this interior veneer that has that specific stamp, not a "Kingston" stencil name brand...even though that was a name used by one of the distributors. I can tell you, the ONLY shells I have ever seen with this stamp also has this smooth interior veneer, as opposed to the rougher, open grain normally assosciated with this type of MIJ shell. The bass lugs are the most telling identifier. Also, the inserts on the tom, those are longer compared to others, another tip I use in identifying toms, the ridge on top of the lugs is another...Pearl lugs have a more "squared" ridge on top of the lug while the Star lugs are softer and rounder. In my opinion and experience, this is a Star made kit, likely from the early 60s.

I agree with John about the "K" stamp. Seems to be a production stamp of some sort, but I have no idea what it was suppose to signify.

I think there was a Kingston or Kingstone (or very possibly, both) drum badge somewhere, but I'm not sure if it was a Star make or not. Noteably, the MIJ cymbals, that are basically unusable if you come across one, had "Kingston" stamped on them. Also, I believe Kingstone was the name of the drumheads that came on some of the late 60s Pearl drums.

Kingston was also a name associated with MIJ guitars, but I dont think they had anything to do with any drum/cymbal/head manufacturer.

http://www.tamadrum.co.jp/anniversary/expansion.php?cat_id=5&now=13

"Kingstone" is/was a Star trademark. The plastic KingStone heads and sticks, the KingStone cymbals, that sort of thing. This K stamp is a stamp that I have seen only on this particular shell lay-up with the smooth maple or poplar interior veneer. As for the Kingston line of guitars, I am not sure if the family Hoshino Gakki was into the electrics and electronics before drums, but they were certainly in business before they got into drums.