Great post John! There are great players out there, they just don't have the look, tats or hair to get the Pub. You have to dig deep now to find great players, but they are there. Unfortunately music has followed everything thing else in our society...if it smells it sells! Your comment about Bobby (one of my favorite drummers of all time) almost made me cry. I thought I was the only person on earth who remembered this guy...amazing chops! That entire band was too good to last!...WOW, what memories!

In the words of Bob Hope, "Thanks for the memories"

Dan

Either I am a poor writer or you guys are poor readers...LMAO i did not mean there were no good drummers who could not carry the mail FFS's lets see ,Kieth moon,John Bonham, Ginger Baker,ian Paice,Bobby Caldwell, Stewart Copeland, Vito delaparta, Louie Bellson, Cozy Powell, I could go on forever.... what I meant was I would rather listen to a guitar master in a jam band scenario than listen to a great drummer hope this makes sense this time .... I Love Blues guitar driven music... ye haw..... got me a elk this morning good eating this winter

Well, I agree that vintage drums can sound terrific, especially when combined with 21st century head technology, but some of those old mounting systems are just awful. Sorry but I had a small "R" Rogers set with swivomatic mounts, they were difficult to deal with and wore out too quickly. The old rail mount systems are even worse. And while I agree that the hanging drums of today are ridiculous, the modern method of mounting onto the bass drum with shafts that go into the toms is a lot easier to deal with and very effective and durable.

Vintage sound is great, but there is something to be said for technological advancement as well, as long as it doesn't sacrifice quality.

I'am with you Mike T, took me right to that special musical place I would like to return too. I don,t know how old you are, but I was born 1942 started drums in 1952 and have been playing (with a small interlude) ever since and with the exception of the disco time period, I liked every song,gig and band I was in. I still play every day just for the enjoyment.

I love it that the younger guys are full of P&V and I enjoy watching every new drummer that comes along, be it a time keeper or a solo artist. Most have what I call Finesse while playing, but I still enjoy the 60s and 70s music and thank the Lord for the baby boomers retiring as they are bringing us full circle back to that special musical place.

BTW some old geezers like myself have played a few gigs lately and it still feels good. Tom

I just turned 59 in October. Born in 1952. I stated playing at 13 in 1966.

Those were great years. My first set was a Japanese 6 pc Del Ray that I played until I bought my second set in 1971. This was a used 1969 Ludwig Rock duo (for $400.00). This set is still with me and will be until I am gone.

I have played this set for forty years now and will soon be gigging again with it, just for fun with some great guys. I have been working on this set putting new heads on, adding in hardware and stands to bring them up to where I always wanted them to be staying within the 1960-80 era. I have Vintage Zildjian A's (60's-70's) to go with them but want to get more to round out this set. I just love this set now more than ever. I am also looking to add a vintage Ludwig piccalo snare to this set.

I agree with what a lot of you have said the new sets just don't feel right especially with the racks.

How old is a vintage drummer?

A Vintage drum is 20 years old, correct?

So you could say someone who has played 20 years is a Vintage drummer.

Anyone who owns a vintage drum is a Vintage drum owner.

Anyone who seeks to own more vintage drums is a collector.

I am a Vintage drummer and owner who collects vintage drums.

I am 61 and I have to agree with you it is just a special time and I guess I am stuck in it.. LOL could be worse, and I agree with you on the gigs it always feels good to play live music always....

I'm 40.

My first real kit in Jr. High was a '68 Ludwig blue sparkle. I sold it when I got a 12 pc. Tama Imperialstar in high school. When I got to college, I regretted it and found my 4 pc. '68 Slingerland silver sparkles at a local store for $200. I cleaned them up, relaced the heads, sat down at them, and never touched the Imperialstars again until I sold them off 10 years later. I've been a vintage Slingerland guy ever since. I went vintage when I was 20 years old in 1991; long before it was cool.

Around the same time, I started collecting vintage keyboards because I couldn't understand why my brother's state of the art Roland D-50 sounded so lame. I was the laughing stock of my college music department when I paid $160 for a Fender Rhodes. Twenty-eight vintage keyboards later now when the keyboard world is Moog, ARP, and Hammond crazy, who's laughing now?

Sounds like a great set! I bought a 1968 psych red rock duo around 10 years ago and it is awesome! What color is yours?

Wow another Rock duo looks great, mine is Black diamond pearl.

What snare drum do you have with that? What cymbals are you using?

I actually have empirical data about the demographics of the vintage drum market. In 2008 I asked about 1000 drummers who qualified as "preferring vintage drums' four questions that I needed to know for the marketing at my drum shop and of Not So Modern Drummer magazine. I found these drummers at drum shops (mine in particular), drum forums and on Ebay. They were pros, semi pros and hobbyists. it took about a year to collect all the data. it wasn't strictly scientific and a lot of the enquiries turned into email conversations that went on for way too long! :-) I did not canvas the uber collectors and hoarders, who I already knew to be older.

Here are the three questions and the answers

1. How old are you?

80% were between 15 and 35

The other 20% were between 36 and 70

2. How many vintage snare drums do you own and how many drum sets?

The average was three snare drums and two drum sets

3. What vintage brand do you prefer?

Ludwig made up 50% and then, Pearl, Drum Workshop, Gretsch, Slingerland, Rogers, Sonor , and all theother smaller brands made up the other 50%, in that order. The most popular snare drums were the Ludwig Supraphonic and the Ludwig Acrolite.

4. How much did you pay for your drum set and your snares and where did you buy them?

drum set $500 snares $225, Ebay about 75%, Craigs List 15%, stores 10%

What I surmised from all this is that Ebay drastically changed the demographics of the vintage buyer starting in 1999 which is why there are so many more younger drummers than middle age and senior citizen drummers. The Ludwig numbers were not surprising because the sixties Ludwig kits are so plentiful and can be picked up for 400 to 500 dollars, much less than a modern pro kit. What did surprise me was Pearl and Drum Workshop coming in second and third, but it only makes sense because they sold more drums in the states than Gretsch, Slingerland and Rogers ever did. Though one of my questions was not on the list I discovered that most of the younger drummers who gigged all the time had one vintage drum set, mostly Ludwigs. Another thing that I surmised was that the majority of these drummers are not participating in the forums and don't consider themselves collectors, but just needed a good pro kit at the best price. They are mostly searching Ebay and googling or facebooking for info and opinions about what to buy. Interesting, huh?