Yup. I chatted about those a few times. I forget the name of the company that made them, but I think they were out of Kansas or Missouri or somewhere around there. They were essentially fiberglass fabricators. They specialized in marine applications -boat hulls and stuff.

Then, in the mid-1970's, the Zickos Company briefly sold their name to another owner and whoever that was, contracted the fiberglass company to build some experimental prototype shells. Some of them were very similar to those drums in the video -white gel coat over fiberglass resin.

Somewhere along the way, the fiberglass company (not Zickos) came up with the parabolic shells -as seen in that Al Green video.

Nothing escapes the men from the VDF-

I know there is video room so this may not be appropriate place but just following in the footsteps of this thread... Guitar Dude Man

Wow them are strange.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tgm7v284JI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tgm7v284JI[/ame]

They do have that boat look so what you say makes alot of sence O-lugs.

First impression i got was nasal spray...yeppers looks like the vicks tube you would stick in your nose.... i know im a little off my rocker Falling Do ... but they do look like that to me. Jump For Joy

My question is... how does the sound get out? They look like bowls :)

No lugs are visible either, far as I can see.

Eek. Almost looks like the rims/heads are just above and inside the ID of those salad-bowls. The snare sounds like a wet paper-bag. I wonder how the snare works, off the bottom of a bowl.....DOH

I stopped the video a few times,and the snare is what looks like a normal 5X14 chrome job.Even though he plays the toms,you can hardly hear them,as opposed to a mixed Vistalite set he plays in a later taped video.Evidently funk-soul drummers were not afraid to experiment-I also watched a Billy Preston video where the drummer was playing a Zickos set,BUT,he didn't look very comfortable playing it.More like it was a prop.And a James Brown video with two drummers,one is playing a very early plexiglass set.The tom mount is very blurry,I cant make out the brand.

After reviewing the videos I noticed the tom mount-what do you think...on Youtube

James Brown Good Foot/S.Power minute 2:35

And here are the new versions of the parabolic shells. These are called "Molecules" :

[IMG]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c84/0neyellowdrum/MoleculesDrum3.jpg[/IMG]

What parabolic shells? Burger KinBurger Kin

what all does the set come with?

http://www.moleculesdrums.com

Interesting gallery...