I'll bet they sound great. That bass drum is pretty rare. Too bad they messed up the collector value....but the player value is high. Probably a fair price to someone who has been looking for one for the sound.. If that bass drum was part of a complete and un-messed bop kit, then the price of the kit is into the 5-figure territory -easily.

We discussed this elsewhere. I don't believe that drum has been "messed with". Rather that is it's original hardware since day one. It was common practice at the time for specialty drum dealers to order drums with no mounting hardware installed and then let the buyer specify what type of hardware he wanted which the dealer would install. This practice was particularly prevalent with Gretsch drums of that era because their own hardware was so bad. In this case someone opted for Roger's swivo stuff. That was a popular choice for this because it was pretty much the best thing available. So that's the "original" hardware and there wouldn't be any extra holes. Certainly more practical than anything that the Gretsch factory would have installed at the time.

As far as the effect on value that's hard to say. It's actually better as a musical instrument this way but the drum collecting hobby seems to have settled on originality as the major yardstick of value...and these drums are all original, but the "alien" hardware will be an issue to most ( wouldn't bother me, but even I'd probably use it to try to negotiate the price down). Of course if these were in Steve Maxwell's showroom he'd call it an "upgrade" ( technically he'd be right) and make it a positive.

I won't argue any of that. That kind of stuff bugs me. Maybe I just have OCD.

I get that. I can tolerate this but only to a point. I think a swivo or a Slingerland single set-o-matic on a Gretsch set is fine (cool almost) and better than what Gretsch would have supplied but I wouldn't be as enamored with a Ludwig center post (which is just too identifiable as "Ludwig"). In any case I'd want such hardware to be from the same time frame as the drums and installed when they were new. When you see these with modern Yamaha, Tama. or Pearl hardware applied that becomes a sticking point for me even though it could be argued that it is even better hardware.

I suppose we all have our limits, I'm a bit more liberal in my view as long as the time frames line up and there aren't a bunch of extra holes involved.

I know that if this set were close to me I'd be trying to come up with the money for them.

Thank God there's no 1970/80s Pearl mount on it...

Yeah, I'd probably pay that for them just to resell them for more money (after I recorded with them, maybe!) ;).

And I always get nervous around those Rogers collets -whether they are the machined ones or the die cast ones. And the cast ones were notorious for cracking especially on the tom mounts. Don't get me wrong, I love Rogers' designs and think the Swivo stuff was some of the most beautiful looking hardware of all times. I just like the curtains to match the drapes! ;)