Thought I might post these up as I just finished the complete restoration on them. This is a 1967/68 1st generation, hand built, pre CFMartin, Fibes set in COF .. and .. even rarer still, are the sizes. More on that in a moment! Most may know that in 1967, Buddy Rich left Rogers .. ( shame too, as Rogers were THE drums for BR! ) .. and he ended up endorsing Trixon/VOX for a short 6 months, and then went over to ... Fibes. Buddy never endorsed or advertised for Fibes, and for that matter, never had a Fibes logo on his front BD head .. but .. he played a full set of them for the back part of 1967 until hooking on with a Slingerland endorsement in 1968. Buddy's love affair with fiberglass snare drums, and specifically Fibes, is well known today! What isn't so well known is that he was playing a fiberglass snare drum as EARLY as 1964 while he was still with Rogers. That drum was built by Bob Grauso, who would go on to form the Fibes Drum Corp. along with John Morena in 1965. In 1964 though, the company was called G&M Custom Drums. I want to add that BR thought so highly of Rogers, Ben Strauss, and Joe Thompson, that when they caught him with the FAKE Rogers fiberglass snare drum and asked him to please stop playing it, Buddy did a very unusual thing, and complied! He would later cause Slingerland a lot of grief by going back to the the Fibes SFT 690/COF snare drum throughout his entire endorsement ... but that was Buddy!, and his love for the Fibes SFT 690/COF snare drum! Anyway...
There's quite a story to this set and how they survived for 48 years!, as most always there will be issues with the real spring steel/chromed wrap. I DID have to work on every drum after complete disassembly to get them back to what you see here ... but I loved every minute of it. Took a solid three weeks to do! As to the drums themselves:
These were built at approx. the same time Buddy's were, and in his configuration and sizes, save one little departure. Here are the sizes:
14X24
9X13
16X14
16X16
5X14 ... 10 lug with the pre SFT prototype throw and 2nd generation butt. This has to be one of the first 10 lug 690/COF snare drums built as during this period, these snare drums were still 8 lugs. Or, it could have been a CUSTOM order, as Fibes built to order back then! So ... how do they sound? ...
IMPRESSIVE! I wasn't expecting such a pure note/timbre from a full fiberglass shell, and with a warmth that defies the very nature of fiberglass! I played a full set of Fibes from 1973 to 1983, but those were the Crystalite clear acrylic series, so I didn't know what to expect here excepting the snare drum which I have a lot of experience with. I don't get going gig wise with the Sinatra Show 'till late May .. so .. for now they are set up in my drum room and will get played daily. I will gig 'em though!, and excited to do so! Hope you enjoy!
Tommyp
