Has it really been over a year since my last post? Huh, at least nothing notable has changed since then…

With the border between Canada and the U.S. closed for the last nine months, the opportunity to buy a drum in the States and have it shipped to Ogdensburg has disappeared. I do miss those early Saturday mornings when I’d take the short drive down the 417, pick up a package at NAC Logistics, rip it open like a kid on Christmas morning, and return home before the rest of the family was awake. And those rare occasions when border services would wave me through without stopping to pay tax – that was just the icing on the cake.

So while I haven’t been spending the pandemic eagerly looking for deals on eBay and Reverb, I still like to browse from time to time. And the other day, I came across this nice example of a Yamaha Custom kit in the same blue finish that I have – in fact, it’s the only other one I’ve seen in this finish for the past few years.

If the shells were in a bit better condition, and if the lugs were gold instead of chrome, this would have been really tempting. Having a shell bank with two different bass drum sizes, seven toms and a matching snare drum would have been lots of fun.

I think these drums have provided clarity on the mysterious letters on the serial number badges on my drums. Each of mine includes PGD – which I think means Power sizes / Gold lugs / Dynahoops. These drums have JCD, which almost definitely means Jazz sizes / Chrome lugs / Dynahoops. OK, maybe not a National Treasure-level deduction, but it’s a small victory.