It’s time to show some love to a little survivor. Usually when a musical instrument is made specifically for a child, it gets treated like a toy truck or a rag doll and gets dragged around. In the case of a drum, it also gets beat to death with anything resembling a stick, so finding such a drum in excellent shape is a rarity.
This beautiful drum was made by Star as part of their “Midget” line. Most commonly seen as part of a four-piece “Low-Teen” drum outfit, they were also sold as individual snare drums. It features the classic “Made In Japan” badge.
The shell of the drum is 6-ply Luan vertical grain wood (IN-V-H-V-V-H-V-OUT) without rerings, The size of the drum is 10” with a depth of 4”.
The four faux lugs on the drum are just guides for a single-tension style.
The Hoops are triple-flange chrome over steel and 1.6mm thick, just like their full sized drums.
The strainer is internal and functions like a tone control only with a half set of snare wires. Because the shell has no snare bed you can mount the batter head or the resonate head on the snare wires to change the sound.
The wrap on this drum is called Blue Agate Pearl and was mounted sideways on the shell. Pictures don’t do it justice, it has depth and reflects light beautifully.
Note that most of the Midget drums came in a White Pearl, Red Pearl, or a Blue Pearl, making this drum a very rare find.
I wish I had a beautiful story about this being my first drum and how it started me on my musical journey, but the reality is I started with a full size snare drum in my teens and I bought this one in my 50’s. Also being real here, it’s not the best sounding drum either, it being a single-tension drum and not using normal snare wires handicaps it, but it is a functional drum and quite stunning to look at. With it being originally sold for under $15 in the 1970’s it’s hard to believe there are not more floating around.
Note about the full outfit: The Midget “Low-Teen” Drum Outfit was a for piece kit with a 16” x 12” bass drum, 9” x 6” tom tom, 10” x 10” floor tom, and the same 10” x 4” snare drum on a stand, plus a cymbal mount on the bass drum with a 10” brass cymbal, and a bass drum pedal. (The three-piece version of this set sold for just $39.99.) There was also the “Trap Set” which was a single head snare on a stand with a cymbal and a tambourine mounted to it.