So based on your own definition, a 1963 Corvette really isn't vintage because its construction and design parameters are completely different than a car from 1915. I don't think you really mean that. Drum sets in big bands, starting in the late 1930s, began to look more similar and have more in common with the drums being made today then they did from drum sets from the early 1930s and before. It is an innovative and evolutionary process and it continues today. To suggest that there is a time frame that we can point to and say before this time is vintage and after this time isn't, completely ignores the evolutionary nature of the changes that took place. What makes one item vintage and imbued with certain qualities that make it desirable vs something else that is just merely old, is often based on subjective desirability and not measurable objective parameters. In other words it comes down to personal perception. The old adage comes into play, "one man's junk is another man's treasure".

The 2004 Gretsch BroadKaster bop kit with gun metal hardware, with some of the last of Gretsch's Jasper shells, which my son recently sold, will almost certainly be a vintage collector's item in another 25 years. It already is desirable. He sold this 14 year old set, which he gigged on quite often over the years, for more than we paid for it. So will my early 2000s Fibes chrome over fiberglass snare (like the one used by Buddy Rich), and my signed DW Craviotto snare from a few years later. You may or may not care for these designs, but age and condition, as well as desirability and availability, will drive the vintage market as it always has. Heck, there even continues to be thriving market in collecting vintage utility pole insulators. I bet nobody saw that coming.

I get it, Mark. Yes, a 1963 Corvette and a 1915 (whatever) car are completely different in their design and manufacturing. However, there are things that bind them. They were both combustion engines bound to the oil industry of the day and made in America, for example.

There are individuals who would say the same thing about a Model T sitting next to a 1963 Corvette. "They don't make 'em like that, anymore!" And it would still not detract from the vintage nature of the relatively-newer Corvette. Let's say that when they stopped making carbureted engines is the line for delineating more major differences between modern fuel-injected and/or electric, hydrogen cars made in other countries, etc. Then, it's easy.

I guess that's really what it all boils down to....Collectors can either find an agreeable way to determine something like a timeline for their terms (ex: "vintage") ...or not. Sure it will change in the future. There will just have to be new delineators added to the future terms.

Yesterday's future is today! :)

In addition, today's future "vintage" drums (DW et.al) won't ever get muddled together with something like 60's era "Big Four" drums. I reckon that, in the year 2050, a 1967 Jazzette won't be on the same page as a 2018 DW bubinga kit. Yes, they will, by then, both be "vintage" kits....but there will be sub-delineators within that term.

And you see nothing in acoustic drums from the '60s and acoustic drums beyond your arbitrary cut-off date that bind them as well? Let's be honest about this. The cut off date you set up is completely subjective and based on your own particular set of interests, and likes and dislikes, not on any sort of generally measurable criteria.

This is not meant as criticism since I feel precisely the same way about A. Zildian cymbals manufactured after 1970. That feeling though has been somewhat mitigated by the fairly recent Avedis line. The 22 inch Zildian Avedis ride I recently purchased comes closer to emulating the sound of a vintage A than any other cymbal I have ever heard. But I accept that this quirk of mine is purely subjective and others here may not agree at all.

Well, I wouldn't claim the timeline "quirk" as "mine" alone. "American-made", pre-OSHA and before free trade had taken its tole. It's a fairly agreed-upon generalization that's applicable now and used by many drum collectors. It's definitely not individually-subjective when so many people agree with the delineators as being those which I have listed. I didn't make that stuff up. I learned it from other collectors! The terms are clear and easy to understand within the group of people who need to define terms. Pre-free trade....pre-OSHA...human-made.

Those aspects are what made a clear change in the way things were done, thereafter, and those things get their own timeline divider as a result....i.e. "vintage".

Once something gets really, really old, then it is delineated even further as "antique"....and so on.

If someone were to ask me "Is a 1989 drum kit considered as 'vintage'?", then I couldn't technically say that a 30-year old instrument didn't have some age to it...and thus, be vintage. But, for all intents and purposes for a discussion among drum people, the meaning behind the question is to determine a general map for present-day collectors....and then after that, the details and focus can be broken down even further -to a microscopic level if need be!

I didn't mean to imply that it was your subjectivity alone any more than its my subjectivity alone with regard to my feelings about modern A. Zildjian cymbals. My overall point is that arbitrary cut-off dates defining what are and what are not vintage drums are, for the most part, subjective without a defineable metric.

it must be said that the production until at least the 60s the economic series had the same quality of professional series, the only difference was that they had less lugs, usually 6, the wires strainer more simplified or of a previous decade, then probably assembled pieces of second and third choice, but only on an aesthetic level, the drum in general was qualitatively at the level of the professional, I do not know well in the 70s but certainly in the 80s with the explosion of mass consumerism there was a qualitative downward race and today it is much more difficult to identify the pieces that may have some value, the series changed radically every 6 months and it is difficult to identify and become attached to them, mostly firewood taken at random it was used, etc. when they realized that the Remo skins made the same sound practically alone even without the shell underneath ... and then the need to play with more and more powerful amplifications to break through the ears, the necessity to create massive drum with a lot of volume without any attention of the refinement of the sound, that has been the trend that has arrived until today ... who in 50 years will look for exactly that surely will be happy ! :)

Keep in mind this discussion is not really about present-day collectors but more about what might interest future collectors, and how future collectors might define vintage. It seems that many people here are assuming that future collectors will value things using the same criteria that current collectors use. I believe that is not a good assumption.

Once again, I'll state that "vintage" is a rather meaningless term to categorize drums as to their collectibility or desirability. I prefer to delineate the categories of drums or many other things by the era in which they were produced. Vintage is intended to identify the year in which a particular bottle of WINE was made. That's wine--not drums or cars or pottery. The "vint" refers to vines of grapes. There are Civil War era drums, Victorian era drums, Jazz era drums, Pre-World War Two era drums, Big Band era 1930's--1940's drums, mid 20th century drums from the 1950's-1960's, and the eras following these. In my opinion, if you insist on using the word vintage, that word should be immediately followed by a specific year such as vintage 1953 Slingerland or vintage 1989 Tama.