Looks like 60's era Pearls to me. Most of the drum interiors look like they're birch or some kind of hardwood, which you don't usually see with MIJ drums -- only one tom appears to be luan, which is the more commonly found wood.

Cleaned up, I'd say probably between $200 - $300.

Yup, you can find the timeline for badges here:

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/pearl_badges.html

Yes, I'd say 1968 Pearls. Nice color wrap actually. That Rail consolette thing is Funky!! Never seen one with a stabilizing bar like that!.

The shells do look better than the normal luan crap, but those bearing edges need some serious sanding.

I dont think its worth $300 tho. I'd say $225 would be tops. That set needs alot of work.

Still, a nice set to have if you must have a MIJ.

The wrap is called Red Grain Pearl. ( http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/my_collection/literature/pearl/1969-pearl-catalog-15.jpg ) Those are sometime from 68-70 ish. Nice kit, but not for that money. They need a good 40 hours of detailing. Most guys think you can just "dust 'er off and git 'er back ta gether" and it will be OK. But, there is a ton of cleaning that a kit needs every 20-40 years, and this one needs it, ALL.

There are so many parts that each takes a special technique and many folk don't know what they are doing. I clean EVERY part in a certain way, I mean even the springs inside the lugs, as well as the swivel nuts. Take it all down to each individual component and you see why it is such a daunting task and why guys like me charge an arm and a leg for deep cleaning detail work. It ain't easy, and it takes a good 30-40 hours to do a proper detailing/restoration job.

I studied the photos- good job in getting the details. I agree that it falls somewhere between 68-70 and might even go as far up as 72/73. Pearl was notorious for using various badges in a seemingly disorganized manner- so badges can`t always help us on a 100% ID with this company. The shells are thick and that would tell me they are from after Pearl hit the rock era, the L-mount cymbal holder had two screw holes on either side- more heavy-duty than early models. Even with a thick ply (9-ply?) shell they still went with extra wood reinforcements- telling me the rack toms are heavier too. The lugs don`t look early- they look almost early Taiwan period to me. Also, the banana clip tom mount was used variously throughout those years on various models- so we can`t use it to date too accurately. I would assume that what you might think is a better wood might just be a better quality Luan on the inner ply- I don`t think we`ll ever know without some kind of chemical analysis. Don`t pay too much 200$ would be decent and clean her up nice.

I'm not a carpenter or woodworker, but the wood looks fundamentally different to me. The grain pattern of the mystery wood is much tighter and clearer (right), when compared to the drum which is obviously luan (left).

I've had Pearls with hardwood rerings, and I remember seeing someone posting a Champion snare that definitely didn't look like luan either (with what looks like a luan reinforcement piece).

I've heard it suggested on this site that late-period Rogers were manufactured by Yamaha using birch shells (can't really see the wood grain, but that shell looks very similar to the Rogers R-360 bass drum I have, with the same gray interior).

Seems totally possible to me that there were MIJ drums that weren't luan from that period, especially if it's from the late 60's or early 70's, when Yamaha began making drums.

I have had some shells from this period, Pearl that is, that had an interior ply only that was like this. My "battleship lug" Astro's had that same ply on the bass and floor tom, but not the rack tom. I think it is a birch or maple veneer, but the rest of the shell is the same as all the others, lauan.

Have you noticed any difference in sound from drums with luan interiors? Some people say the interior ply has the most noticeable effect on the drum's tone.

Anyway, my theory was that you might be able to sell this kit for a bit more, given that the interiors are different, and possibly sound better. But maybe not!

After I did a complete restore on my orange sparkle Astro, I doubled my money, which was really not too bad. It was really clean when I got it so the restore was not all that bad. If you could get this kit for 150ish or less, you might do OK locally, but not on ebay. Now, you could put on a foreign ebay and get a lot more, but then it is the headache of international shipping. The thing about them is it's always a crap shoot. I have noticed a difference in the larger shells. I re-finished my kit by adding an interior veneer of curly maple to the very thin 3 ply shells.