I’m a sucker for odd ball drum sets. The “made in Japan” drum sets from the sixties hold a special place in my heart because my first drum set was a MIJ no-name blue sparkle four piece kit that served me well as I was learning to play the drums. This Lido Supreme came into my world through a gentleman in the North East U.S. who contacted me about selling it on DrumSellers.com. I knew I wanted it because of the article and video that Edwin Rivera had done for Not So Modern Drummer about his Lido Supreme Fantasia Pearl kit - see video below - and read Edwin’s article. We agreed on a price and we arranged for him to drop it off at my step son Russell’s house in Norton, Ohio on a trip to nearby Cuyahoga Falls that he had already planned. My wife, Georgetta, brought it home to me in Memphis from one of her trips to Ohio to see her son.
Whenever I buy one of these “beautiful ugly duckings” I plan on playing it for at least a while before passing it on to some other vintage drum geek who just can’t live without it. I remember a crowd of drummers at one of the Chicago Drum Shows laughing at me as I walked out of the building with a brand new Remo PTS “fiberboard” drum set that I bought at the end of the last day for $100. Man, I got my money’s worth out of that kit. I used it as a teaching kit and as a rehearsal kit for many years before I finally sold it. And it sounded pretty darn good.
The finish on this kit is intriguing and is in very good shape. The whole kit needs cleaning and polishing but there is no major rust or tarnish. Edwin’s kit has Sonor tear drop knock off lugs while mine has Slingerland knock off lugs.This particular kit has the smaller sizes that I most often look for; 14”x 20” bass drum with mounted cymbal holder, 8” x 12” mounted tom, 14” x 14” floor tom and 5” x 14” snare drum. There were some uber-light weight stands included that I will not be using. Some of the original heads are there, but it is missing the bottom heads, hoops and tension rods for the toms. I am leaning toward putting die cast hoops on the toms to improve the sound. Some of these MIJ drums can sound pretty good, especially the ones with maple reinforcing rings. This kit does not have the rings, so the die cast hoops will act as reinforcing rings. I’ll post pictures after I get it cleaned up and into working order. If you are interested please contact me. I’ll include the Lido Supreme banner which I bought on a whim years ago.