Haha this is along the lines of what I was thinking, but didn't see anything that mentioned this in my research. As a side note, I gotta say that half the fun of finding/restoring this kit has been the research/hunt. I've learned an unbelievable amount in the past year or so.

My other thought was that the differences in bends were intentional, i.e. 2 of the 4 legs having a wider splay give the drum a natural "tilt" towards the drummer when you line up all 4 at the same notch placement, as to be easier to remember where you set the legs in the knobby unit. But that's kind of a stretch :)

-Pepe

As long as we're discussing swivo tom legs, can anyone tell me why the number of legs on Rogers 18" and 20" FT's vary? I have seen 18" Rogers FT's with both 3 and 4 legs, and my 20" Fullerton has only 3 legs. Is there any timeline for these changes?

Mike C.

Interesting... I've honestly only seen a 4 leg setup on the larger sizes, but I haven't really dug into the issue.

Also, I'm totally jealous of your 20" floor tom. Where did you score that?? A few months ago I had the pleasure of using a friends vintage slingerland kit with a 20" floor tom. Thunderous. I loved it.

-Pepe

That 20" Fullerton was a great score. I drove two hours from my home in Connecticut and took a ferry to Long Island, NY just to follow up on a C/L ad listing a "5 piece script logo Rogers set". When I arrived at the guy's house, I was disappointed to see that the snare was Ludwig, and the 24" bass and mounted toms had been redrilled and fitted with a Ludwig clip mount, but the 20" FT was unmolested. This whole players-grade set was well-worn and dirty, but I bought it on the spot just for that monster FT. The guy then threw in a beautiful pair of Ludwig 14"&15" concert toms with stand, two Hercules boom stands, high-hat, snare stand, and a Speed King. I don't want to admit what I paid, but I made my total cost back by selling just the concert toms and the Ludwig Supraphonic.

Thunderous is the word for that FT. I've used it in shows as a substitute for timpani. Love it. Still curious though about its all-original, 3-leg configuration.

Mike C.

Man. Good Story, great score :) Sounds well worth the money and trip.

Did some light digging and didn't find too much yet. I found an old ebay listing for a fullerton 20" (http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140604064420), seems to have 3 knobby mounts as well.

I have a couple of theories, though I could be way off... one is this:

Of all the oversized floor toms with three legs I've been able to find online, which hasn't been much, anything 18" or 20" with three legs has always had the 9/72 tags with a serial number which dates them at 1975 (no letter prefix and no underline under the serial number.) I believe after this, come the big R models, they only used three legs for oversized floor toms. So maybe this was a sort of "transition" thing come the later models.

During fullerton era, parts became lighter/cast or dropped completely (such as internal springs in casings) as time went on in order to save on production costs. Maybe by then, they decided to ditch 4 mounts for 3 in an effort to save money.

Just one thought, but like I said I wasn't able to do a whole ton of digging.

Any idea what year your 20" tom is?

Also, if you're ever looking to sell or trade for that beast, I'm calling dibs now ;)

-Pepe

This is my first time posting. I want to start off by saying hello and I'm happy to be part of this forum. The question I have is about tom legs, I want to preface the question by saying that I just recently purchased a 10 piece 1977 Rogers kit. It's all intact including the Dynasonic snare. The only thing that is missing is the tom legs for the 18" floor tom. Can anubody tell me the length of the legs and the diameter of the legs? Plus, where can I find the thumb screws that would fit to hold the legs in place? What size would they be? Thread count etc. Happy Holidays to all.

When you mention thumb screws....... I am assuming your set does not have knobby mounts and instead has the Memriloc floor tom mounts and legs. You can most likely find exact replacements from Al Drew, Woonsocket RI, Drews Music. Or, the shark pit, ebay.

Memriloc leg mounts are a very late 77, early 78 time stamp. High D72xxxx, 73xxxx range and above.