Greetings,
The recent thread about the differences between Ludwig Atlas and Hercules stands mentioned some bad ideas from Ludwig. I thought I would start a thread so you could chime in about what you thought were poor decisions by various drum companies.
From the aforementioned thread, here were the bad ideas mentioned by Ludwig:
1. Riveting the wrap to the shell in the early 80's
2. Using the black plastic T-handles and nuts on stands
3. Swivel foot Atlas hardware
4. Discontinuing the L 201 Speed King Pedal
Again this is not to single out Ludwig, but a chance to sound off on all the companies "Bad Idea Jeans" moments.
I'll add a couple more for Ludwig:
1. Reissuing a new Acrolite snare for $400 when you can get a "real" vintage for one all day every day for less than half of that. Seriously, who is buying a brand new Acrolite at that price?
2. Modular tom mounts in the 80's. I don't suppose I blame them in a sense, because bigger and bulkier was better in the 80's, but still....You had your own, identifiable mounting system that had been working just fine, and then you went and copied Pearl and their horrible mounts? I'm glad they discontinued the Modular stuff. Ugly, bulky, heavy and sound killing.
A few more off the top of my head:
Slingerland and their, ahem, "specialty" wraps (Aztec, Denim, Leather etc).
Remo's PTS drums
Yamaha boom arms that were only held in place by a wing screw tightened against the solid boom arm. Even with a memory lock, these would ALWAYS come loose. I remember seeing Aaron Comess of the Spin Doctors once, and one of his crash cymbal booms would come loose and droop literally every song. His drum tech had to go and re-tighten the boom arm every time. Yamaha finally fixed this but it took them a LONG time to figure it out.
I'm sure I'm missing some obvious ones, let's see what everyone else chimes in with.
V
