And a good winter project it will be.Nice score here thornbeck and the sizes are wonderful.Looking forward to seeing some late winter/early spring pics.Enjoy your duco project.

Wayne

Man those are nice!! Should make a great winter project. Great find. Congrats!

The picture is deceiving. The snare is pretty checkered, but the rest of the kit is a little better. Not sure how I want to address the cosmetic issues. I could re-do the snare and just touch up the rest. I've also heard people apply a clear over the duco to stop the paint from falling off. If guitars can be "relic" looking, why can't drums?

This appears to have been a basement dweller for a while. Some of the hardware is rusty, like it was sitting on a damp floor. The spurs, tom clip, snare stand and other hardware were wrapped in a nasty orange and yellow rug from the 70's. I left the rug. :) Paid $100. I hope I didn't get myself into a bad situation with this one. :)

I wonder if the 15x12 floor toms are more elusive than the 14x14's? Based on the serial numbers, was this purchased as a kit or was it put together in stages? I'm thinking it was right during the badge transition period. The snare and bass were together and possibly the tom tom. Then the floor tom was added later.

-Tim

Based on some numbers research, I'm guessing this is from late 1960 to early 1961.

It was probably pieced together with parts of the Mayfair kit (tom tom/bass drum), the less expensive Mercury single tension snare and an added lower cost Tower 15x12 floor tom. It could also be the Bandstand Kit.

Mayfair Kit

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/rogers_sets/mayfair/1957_mayfair.jpg

Mercury Snare

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/rogers_sets/mercury/1957_mercury.jpg

Bandstand Kit

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/rogers_sets/bandstand/1960_bandstand.jpg

All shells are 3-ply too. The Tower floor tom appears to have a light/dark/light ply make-up and the Mayfair tom tom and Mercury snare appear to have a light/light/light ply makeup. Did Rogers/Keller use different wood ply combinations for the lower end drums versus the higher end kits?

-Tim

Wow that is really sweet. $100? Where do you all people find these deals? Let me in on the secret? I had no idea Rogers did Ducos...

Spectacular score! Beautiful kit with rare sizes. That 12x15 has to be a rare-bird. Have big fun getting it ready to play. I love Duco finishes.

John

Thanks guys. I'll need to start looking for some bread and butter lugs to replace those that have failed and reinforce those that have minor cracks.

Even though the Mercury snare is single tension and the tension rods just pass through the lugs, they all have minor cracks. So even without direct head/hoop tension on the lug, they still crack.

I wish Rogers would have kept the same lug hole pattern between the bread and butter and beaver tail. Time to stock up on JB Weld. :)

-Tim

Tim awesome looking kit.

Update ...

I have the kit broken down. Hardware-wise, I think it's worse than I originally thought. Only 3 completely failed lugs, but I found more with minor (one side) to major(both sides) cracks. One side of the bass drum claws and t-rods are really rusted. The bass drum duco finish is in the best shape out of all of the shells. The snare is the worse. The tom tom has a lot of snare rash.

So now the dilemma, which route to go and how far?

Getting ready to go to my two son's marching band contest, but I'll het some more pictures posted.

-Tim