Brand

Used Pearl drums

Pearl started in 1946 as Katsumi Yanagisawa's music-stand workshop in Tokyo and turned to drums in 1950. In 1961 it built a factory in Chiba, Japan, and in the 1960s it made stencil kits sold under more than thirty other names, Apollo, Coronet, Maxwin and CB-700 among them. The President Series of 1966 was the first drum set to carry the Pearl name. The 1970s brought a run of new shells, from all-fiberglass and fiberglass-lined wood to molded acrylic Crystal Beat drums and phenolic Vari-Pitch drums. Pearl opened a factory in Taiwan in 1973 and an American company in Nashville in 1979, and by the early 1980s Jeff Porcaro, Phil Collins and Ian Paice were Pearl players. The Free Floating snare arrived in 1983 and the maple GLX and MLX professional kits in 1984. Pearl built in so many materials that the first thing to confirm on any vintage listing is what the shells are made of. After that, check the hardware is complete.

6 drums we cover.