Short version - great drums, terrible accoutrements.
Long version - At various times I've owned three different kits in different sizes (actually all of them at one time once) - two LA and one Chanute - plus a chromed brass snare and a wooden 8 lug Aristocrat (both LA). Bottom-line is the drums themselves were/are great but the stands, fittings and, in my single experience, the snare mechanism, all left a lot to be desired.
Pure theorising here but I would imagine that Camco going down the tube in the late 70s had more than a little to do with their total inability to supply the sturdy hardware required of rock drummers of the day - remember this was in the wake of the early 70s Japanese invasion with their really solid hardware and a general upgrading of hardware from pretty much all the American and British manufacturers.
The Camco tom mounts and cymbal stands looked like they were fashioned from paperclips and, honestly, if you were playing anything much tougher than cocktail jazz, things would be falling apart on you.
Similarly the Camco snare mechanism I had had a kind of "rollercoaster" internal action - one smooth ****** gliding over another smooth piece of metal. With time the metal inevitably wore down and your snare mechanism didn't work anymore.
The internal dampers on the drums as well were probably more complicated than they needed to be with a twisted wire "bracelet" affair which just looked like it was going to break and which I found rattled too much to be allowed in a studio.
Suspect any regular gigging/recording musicians would have dumped the original hardware and made their own arrangements - which might account for the paucity of 100% complete "original" Camco kits around today. In my case most of the decisions had already been taken by the original owners.
Great drums though - they're there to play, not look at, right?
DR
