Gary!

Well known today!... and the vid has been around a long time too. I actually have the FILM of this in my Buddy collection! That said, Donn Bennett has been trying to sell this kit FOREVER! His is NOT COMPLETE .. ( he stopped by my BR display at the Chicago Show and we chatted for a long time about this set ) .. and the price is too high, and I mentioned that to him as well. Just my opinion of course, but... even WITH all the original toms, his price is too high. Here's the kicker: Buddy HATED the drums! Loved the snare!, and continued to play a Fibes snare all the way up to his 3rd and last Ludwig endorsement in 1977... but HATED the rest of the drums. He thought they PROJECTED as only fiberglass can!, but sounded "thin and lifeless". BR's comments, not mine. Anyway, thought you might like a little back story on this kit!

Tommyp

Did anyone notice the cymbal on Buddy's left side got moved? At the beginning of the video it's closer to him, then during his solo, it's moved over further to his left and then eventually falls over. The trumpet player made a great one handed catch! It must had been a pretty flimsy drum riser.

I noticed that his snare is way high compared to his other setups too.

I owned a set of CF Martin Fibes back in the day and they were not woody sounding by any stretch of the imagination.

Great live and I would kill for a be bop sized kit of those.

I own 7 SFT 690 snares ,3 Fibes ,one Austin Fibes,one Garcia,one Corder.and one Cannon.

I saw that. Nice catch. Could of been bad if he hadn't grabbed it.

... and the guy that made that catch was Chuck Findley, just 19 at the time! KILLER player and all around nice guy... and Buddy liked him. Always a plus!

Tommyp

I have TWO of BR's model snare drums in my Buddy Rich snare drum collection. One of them is the same model seen here with the then prototype throw/butt... RARE! It's a 1966/67 Fibes 690/COF and was then an 8 lug drum with each drum being hand built to order. The 2nd one I have is a 1973 Fibes SFT 690/COF which was the full production model and as such featured 10 lugs and the SFT strainer/butt. Buddy played this model the most, and right up until 1977, regardless of what company he was PAID to endorse at the time! Only Buddy could get away with that! Here's a pic of both, with a close up of the then prorotype throw which never went into full production. It is on BR's 1st model though, as this drum is the same. ENJOY!!!

Tommyp

To Tommyp or anyone, why did Buddy like the Fibes snare but despise the rest of the kit? Was the snare that much better constructed? Seems odd. Thanks for the photos and the education, as usual.

larryz!

THANK YOU for the kind words! Glad you enjoy the back story on this stuff! Anyway...

... I did actually mention why BR didn't like the Fibes drums in my initial reply to Gary. ( post #2 ) But here it is again! Buddy thought the rest of the drums sounded "thin and lifeless", although he dug how they projected! This was late 1966/1967 production, and these drums were hand laid/spun fiberglass, and according to Bob Grauso, it was kinda "hit or miss" on the shells, well at least until they really got their consistency down. I have seen that EXACTLY with many of the early snare drums, although for the most part, the snare drums sound pretty consistent. Buddy of course dug the Fibes snare in a big way!, and so much so that it literally cost him his Slingerland endorsement!, as he wouldn't stop playing the Fibes snare drum IN PUBLIC when he was being PAID to endorse Slingerland. After a while Don Osborn Sr., then president/owner of The Slingerland Drum Company had had enough, and even Buddy's "charm" wasn't enough to keep that relationship intact.

Tommyp

Slingerland did take a shot at Fibes with their TDR strainer.

I read where Buddy actually used one as he contributed to it's design.

I played their marching TDR in corps and it was one of the better marching snares I've ever played.