Mark/Dan!THANKS as always for the kind words Mark! I have oft thought about doing just that .. but .. I believe that window has closed. I SHOULD have jumped on doing that years ago. I will add that a LOT of my research/info is now "out there" as I have written about a lot of this in various replies over the many years. Funny thing ... David and I had all the professional photography done on the entire Buddy Rich snare drum collection/history which was going to be FOR the book! Time, she marches on though, and well ... you know!Dan!Regarding BR and Trixon/VOX: First thing is, it was Trixon that offered the endorsement, and the drums are indeed Trixon. VOX was the name used to market them in the US, but there was no VOX per se ... at least in the drum division. So, Buddy splits Rogers .. Trixon heard about it .. and they step up with an actual monetary stipend if Buddy will come aboard. Up to this point, drum endorsements were generally equipment only ... NO CASH compensation. Trixon is to blame for starting that! 😅 The fee is said to have been $100,000.00, and factoring in inflation, would be the equivalent of approx. $817,000.00 today .. plus .. all equipment needed supplied. Not a bad deal by any means!, and especially so as they were going to PAY HIM to play them. So ... Buddy had those drums modified to a good degree as in their original build, would NOT have been able to handle the rigors/stress of the nightly set up .. take down .. playing .. travel .. etc. Word is that The Professional Drum Shop in LA did the "beefing up" and mount addition/modifications on the Trixon's. Buddy used his Rogers hardware with the set, and for good reason! So ... as to the drums themselves: Buddy chose/played the Luxus model which were then 6 ply, birch or sometimes beech. The shells were very much like SONOR shells .. and .. it is said that SONOR supplied a lot of Trixon's shells. If you listen to any of those "Away We Go" show performances, you will hear that Buddy has these drums tensioned UP! I have always suspected that it was the nature of the birch/beech shells "note", and Buddy was looking for the attack/projection that he wanted, and the beech/birch was just a little too "mellow" in that regard. At any rate, after 6 months it was all he could take, and he split that most lucrative deal with Trixon/VOX ... amazing in itself as 817K was a LOT of cash! After his Trixon/VOX endorsement, he was still without a deal .. so .. in came the full set of Fibes COF's. As mentioned, these only hung around about another 6 months until Slingerland made him an offer he could not refuse .. and .. there was CASH in that deal as well. That die had been cast thanks to Trixon/VOX! Buddy would remain with Slingerland from 1968 to 1978 .. and .. as is so well known today, continue to play the Fibes SFT690/COF snare drum pretty much throughout that endorsement, despite Slingerland designing TWO snare drums specifically for him. Seriously, ONLY Buddy could get away with something like that! Here's a pic out of my collection showing his Trixon/VOX set to good advantage in 1967.😎Tommyp
Much appreciated Tommy. Great history and especially interesting is the whole business of the cash beginning to come into play on the endorsements. When you think about it, Buddy was right to require it. As with just about any product, we perceive ourselves somewhat related to it by the others who use it. So drum companies, share the wealth!! Excellent photo of the Vox kit too, and thanks for that.
