Well disco took off in the later 70's, then metal and rap joined to rule the 80's, so I think the last of the vintage age was in the 70's. after 80, nobody looked back.

Besides the local classic hits station does 40 years back.

I associate "Vintage" not by a year, but more by eras. For example Slingerland Radio Kings became legendary through Krupa and Rich along with the rise of the Big Band era. Gretsch Round Badges were played by the whos who of Jazz/Be-bop drummers in the 50's and 60's. Ludwig was battling it out with Slingerland until that fateful night of a certain Ed Sullivan broadcast and then everyone coveted a Ringo kit. Rogers was coveted for its trend setting hardware and attention to detail.

Beyond that various other things come into play. A general golden age of manufacturing (i.e. best materials and designs of the time), A music environment where you could play steady gigs regularly (for a living), and maybe most importantly, a point in your life you want to re-live through obtaining that perfect kit with the perfect wrap that was out of your reach financially as a young person, and again playing the music that shaped your life.

kdg! Well said!

-Mark

I define vintage for myself as something made before I was born. Acordingly to that, I have no interest in drum parafernalia after 1970. It's a personal point of view and of course I understand that other people can file under vintage anything made after that year. The 1990's are 20th century and think about in some decades all made in that era will be put into the same box.

This is a thread that comes up in every vintage forum I've ever belonged to in any hobby or interest - and its never truly answered!

Vintage or not is in the eye of the beholder.

Let's complicate this discussion even more by trying to distinguish between "vintage" and "antique". if a '57 Chevy is vintage and a 1914 Stutz Bearcat is an antique, then my Cleveland Rogers snare is vintage and my 1900 Lyon & Healy snare is antique, right?

No right answers to this.

Mike

I am officially Vintage, but my knees are antique!

I think that's correct.

And more along the line I was saying for Drums. Category. Categories. Post- war pre-war;

In Cars I don't know the "names" for 70s or 80s or 90s...name's Car clubs etc use.

I tried looking for Car Club AACA (Concours etc. all) where a List of Categories (by year) but didn't find any.

I would regard anything 1989 and older as vintage. Just my opinion.

Like a mid 1980s Yamaha Steve Gadd-era kit. That wold be sweet and vintage.

I've read in other forums that the "vintage" drum era is generally accepted to have ended in the early 80's when US manufacturing regulations put a stranglehold on the Big 4, causing several changes in ownership and manufacturing quality, coupled with the added pressure from the emergence of the Big 3 from Japan. Personally I look at when Bill Ludwig II sold the company outside of the family in November 1981 as the tipping point.