Nice! Specs please. ;-)

Chris!

Fibes fan that I am, as I have that 1967/68 1st generation set of Fibes COF in Buddy's configuration/sizes!, I have to tell you: So many guys are mistaken on this finish. In actuality, Fibes called this "Antique Brass", not brushed brass. Their copper variant was "Antique Copper". Doesn't change anything on this nice set of course!, but just thought you might want to know. BEAUTIES!... especially so with that 14X26!

Tommyp

Very nice, love the fIbes

Greg!

Sizes/specs are listed in the information box right under the pic!

Tommyp

I remember the "antiquing" was a brushed on coating as you could see where there were splotches on the finish where too much was applied.

Fibes QA was suspect at times compared to the contemporary Japanese stuff of the same era.

Friend of mine .. now deceased .. was a Fibes endorser back in the early 70's. His finish of choice was the "Antique Brass" . That was the first time I saw Fibes!, and shortly thereafter I caught Billy Cobham with Mahavishnu, and well ... I had to have Fibes! Point is ... the finish was always CALLED "Antique Brass", and all of it suffered from corrosion and discoloring eventually! In the first catalog Fibes referred to it as " ... the elegance of the brushed satin finish of the Antique Brass and Antique Copper ..." I gotta agree with you on the QC though, even though it improved somewhat with CFMartin ... it could still be BELOW the standards set by the Japanese at the time!

Tommyp

So Chris

Very Nice looking Fiberglas Kit.

I retrofitted a 14" Peal fiberglass floor tom to match my Fibes kit and was amazed at the difference between their shells vs the Fibes.

Nice clean,even bearing edges and a smooth finish inside and out with the Pearl.

The Fibes ,not so much.

I've got a Fibes snare shell that I'm going to restore and nobody will touch the bearing edges.

Al Schneider from Gelb Music just said get a piece of glass or granite ,tape sand paper to it and set the snare on it and true it that way.

Ya!... so true on the Fibes vs. Pearl, and we have to include Blaemire too, as I have a pretty special Blaemire snare drum: 1966 Blaemire/Rogers made for and played by Louie Bellson! This is a beauty in that it was built with Rogers hardware and wrapped in Rogers WMP to disguise it for LB, allowing him to play it with his Rogers drums which he was endorsing at the time. Visions of BR as he did the same while he was with Rogers. Anyway .. point is .. the Blaemire fiberglass shells are really nicely done/finished with very nice bearing edges. As you mentioned, the Fibes... not so much. Couple things of interest though:

Blaemire shells are spun fiberglass, where as Fibes were all hand laid/built in molds, which Bob Grauso called the "filament molding process". This is why early 1st generation Fibes .. pre CFMartin .. look so RAW and unfinished ... because they are! Once CFMartin got involved, they cleaned things up a bit with regard to the overall aesthetics of the interior fiberglass. Of note though is that early Fibes snare drums.. ( of which I have two, a 1966/67 and a 1967/68 ) .. were outsourced! I found this out after the fact by talking with some guys that knew Bob Grauso, and he made mention of it to them. That is borne out with the fact that the early Fibes shells are SPUN!, and look near identical to the Blaemires on the inside. Again, NOT SO with the bass drums and toms which are extremely archaic looking as they were all hand laid up fiberglass, but play and sound excellent!

I'll attach a few pics showing a 1967/68 Fibes 5X14 shell all apart as I was doing a resto/clean/polish on it ... and then my 1966 Blaemire being reassembled after clean/polish ... then the interior of my 1967/68 1st generation Fibes 14X24 bass drum after I did the resto/clean/polish, but prior to reassembly. Very easy to see how RAW and unfinished the Fibes bass drum and tom fiberglass interiors were, and especially so compared to Blaemire and Pearl!

Tommyp