This treatise will be lengthy - Be Forewarned!

When I retired from my (non-musician) career at the end of 2015, I got the Vintage Drum bug and sold my perfectly fine Mapex Saturns. I then bought what I thought would be my Holy Grail drum set - a 1967 Sky Blue Pearl Ludwig Club Date set in the 12/14/20 configuration. I bought a Pioneer snare also, in the matching Sky Blue Pearl (SBP).

At the time, I was a purist. I wanted only era-correct hardware, and went about acquiring just that.

Then reality punched me in the face: The ride tom sounded just fine when I had it off the mount, but as soon as I fastened it on the bass drum-mounted tom mount, it sounded like crap. Thunk, thunk, thunkety thunk. My research at the time revealed that many others had experienced this very same phenomenon. I sought suggestions, and many helpful drummers suggested putting the tom on a snare stand or using a Gauger RIM mount. These suggestions would have worked, probably, but as a purist, I couldn’t bring myself to do that. I was annoyed that I couldn’t enjoy the drums as designed and sold.

Another fact that didn’t help my happiness was that the SBP had faded to grey. Not a bit of blue remained except under the lugs. Also, in my naïveté, I didn’t know when I bought them that nearly every rim and tension rod were aftermarket products, and not high-end ones. They were cheap! I ended up trading the set for a four-piece vintage Sonor. Thus began my odyssey. Since then I have owned drums by Mapex, Yamaha (2 sets), Slingerland (2 sets), WFL, Ludwig (2 sets), and another Sonor.

I wasn’t the only one unhappy. My wife didn’t care for my spending either, especially since I hardly ever made money on the buy/sell deals.

Then a few days ago, I spotted a 1968 SBP Club Date set for sale. The amazing thing about this set was that the Sky Blue Pearl was actually…sky blue! There is nearly zero fade from new, as evidenced by removing several lugs on the drums. I fully expected to have to suspend the tom from a RIMS mount, which I bought with the set (it’s actually a Premier-branded suspension mount). I bought an Acrolite with the set, which is painted light grey. I believe it to be factory finished, but I have never seen one like it before.

Legend has it that the drums were owned by a church and remained there for forty or so years. They sold the drums to the principal church drummer, who stored them in a closet until he decided to sell them 10 or so years later. Then I came along.

I spent three days cleaning them up. The 12” Tom sings with the suspension mount. I am over myself and can handle the non-original tom holder. I also have a mix of vintage and modern hardware. All of the drums sound great, and I am extremely happy to have just this drum set (Okay, I have a tiny cajon-based set for special circumstances).

My plan is to have only one drum set for the rest of my life. Let’s see how well I do! Thanks for reading.

Josh