Don`t change your hardware cuz it`s heavy,....change your workout routine !i

Yamaha make top quality stands. I`ll give them that !i

One of the questions that always comes up about Sonor is; why are there so few Sonor drums around from the 50's? This seems to be true in Germany, Europe and elsewhere. I just was emailed a question relating to that by a forum member.Sonor is an interesting company and has gone through a number of phases( at least 10) , throughout it's long history but these have to be viewed in the context of the history of the other German drum and music companies, most of which persisted until the early 90's and all of which contributed to Sonor's development, leaving it the heir to the German drum industry . During that period, it was impossible for any of those drum companies to survive in the climate of the new German economy( Sonor included) and facing the extreme competition from Japan. Sonor only survived courtesy of a buyout by Hohner( harmonicas, accordions), who obtained 100% ownership.

Although Sonor's German origins are well used in order to base claims of superiority on, they have not always been the best that Germany had to offer. During the rebuilding stage in the early to late 50's, Sonor, like almost all drum companies catalogued several series of drums; with the student to mid-lines , which represented the bulk of the sales, being pretty mediocre drums. The shells were excessively thin and did not stand the test of time, the lugs were prone to cracking and the hardware was spindly.That's why there aren't too many Sonor 50's drums around. The mediocre ones fell apart and the better ones undersold. Sonor hardware did not catch up until sometime into the 70's , no doubt due to the borrowing of ideas from Trixon and the input from Trixon designers. Trixon , unlike Sonor, did not produce a second line of drums( there was Trixon Jr. but those were pitched at the children/ very young beginner market) and ever since Trixon began,they had focussed entirely on having only one line of drums------high end. When Trixon was forced to cease production( due to a bankruptcy by an Irish piano maker, with which they shared raw material purchases and premises); Trixon styling, engineering and likely workforce( over 700) started showing up at all the other companies in Germany. You can see Sonor, Rimmel, Tromsa even Tacton take a jump, in the 70's . Part of this was due to increased sales. If you take the dominant ,market leader out of the marketplace, then the others have a little more room to breathe.

This is really what propelled Sonor into the 70's and then of course Hohner's money.

I am most familiar with 50's, 60's and 70's ,Sonor and in those years, I would have to say the high end teardrop drums , although not the equal of Trixon in the same era, are pretty good. I like the pedals they started to make in the 70's and one or two very early ones and some of the 70's stands. Most of the flat based stands are medium quality but after Trixon quit, there was a dramatic jump in mostly the thinking at Sonor.

As an aside: Sonor had a number of coop arrangements with other drum companies. Rimmel made castings for them, did chroming, Tromsa made heads, co-oped on at least some pedal designs, made marching drums for them and there even was some cooperation going on with Tacton ,in East Germany, so all is not cut and dried ,in the Fatherland , when it comes to drums.

After 1991, when Hohner bailed them out, Sonor has taken a whole different direction and necessarily so. The making and marketing of drums is difficult today, especially when you have laid claim to the Rolls of drums tag. I wish them luck and I hope they keep the slothead t-screws.

Sonor is one of the few companies who's drums consistently lived up to it's reputation.

I for one think my 60's drops are a match for any thing I've heard.

Thank you Calfskin for a clear historical picture of the Sonor history! Bed-time reading at its finest!

Where, Nah, Why did you come up with this BS ? You are entitled to your exclusive opinion,..but dude, Teardrops are every bit as good if not more disireable than Trixon. Don`t get me started on 70`s Phonics, the best drums ever built !i The fifties graphite lug you speak of did not stand up to time, but the shells do and did. That period didn`t last long, when you realise a mistake in material, you change it.

You also convieniently mis lead people in your opinion by not mentioning the FACT that there was not much left of Germany in the Fifties, Patton, Monty, Sherman and MacAuthor.....Flattened it in the Fourties !i

You wanna know why fifties German drums aint around,...Cuz Germany wasn`t around in the fifties !i We had to talk the Russians outta keeping it. It took a long time to split, rebuild and have anything remotely resembleing an economy for Germany !i So they got a second wind with teradrops in the 60`s and you can`t pick them apart with artillery !i

Sonor infrustructer was bombed into failure. Money was a huge issue after. I hope ya understand !i

In the sixties, Sonor was the only drum company that invested huge profits into fighting patten laws and suing japan and still lost, Something American drum companies and their lawyers chose not to do.

Was that a mistake buisness wise ? Yes.

Was fighting to keep what was theirs ? You tell me !i

Japan made toys and musical instruments to sell to the States for a LOOOONG time after the war. They also knew that before any company could win long drawn out court battles, they would and did sell what they made.

Don't shoot the messenger. Just relating the facts. In no way was I trying to diminish the value of Sonor drums, just trying to put the company's importance into perspective. The problem is that most North Americans, know nothing about German drums except for Sonor because those are the only German drums that they have had any contact with.Yes, Trixon had been a factor but only until 1972. Rimmel, Deri, Lefima , Tromsa, Trowa and Tacton products only show up in N.A. in odd pockets.They were never really exported in any volume and there was no general distribution . It would have been a similar situation as if, say, only Ludwig drums were exported to Australia and no one knew anything about Rogers, Gretsch, Slingerland or Camco down there. The informing opinion about American drums would be skewed towards Ludwig. It is very much the same for Sonor in N.A. because they were the only ones that survived. Was it because they are the best? not likely; they just cut a sweet deal with Hohner. Trixon's sweet deal was unfortunately attached to Vox and Vox ,although a factor in popular music circles, was not the driving overall dominant force in music as harmonicas and accordions are( where there is much less competition).

Yes, Germany was hammered during the second W.W.( duh!!), whatever that means to the discussion but go ahead and take a Trixon drum apart from early 50's( Trixon was already commanding major attention by 1949), and compare it to a contemporary Sonor. There isn't much similarity in the build quality. Trixon shells are precise, chamfered, finished in all respects,bearing edges are precise, all snare had parallel throwoffs, the hoops are heavy , the parts and hardware precise and functional.The only Sonor that aspired to that build quality( but didn't quite make it) was their top line. They had a lot of catching up to do but they did, especially after Trixon quit and over 700 skilled drummakers became available . There is no doubt that Sonor took a big leap forward in the early 70's , just when all that expertise became available and there is no doubt that Sonor needed it.

Calf,

where are you located?

You always seem to know so much about Euro drums....

Right across the lake from Oswego N.Y.