It seems to me that you won't get back what you put into them. I am a pro/carpenter-trying to be pro/drummer and have done some restoration myself. The altered kits aka "players kits" just dont seem to bring that much money. I have a kit that I put together out of old Slingerland shells for playing out,because I want to keep my vintage kit in good shape. I got about 500.00 in it not including my time. Its a great kit, perfect for me but I just don't think I could get what I think its worth. Maybe I'm wrong.

Right now, as stated above, the market says that "players" don't hold their value the way "factory" stuff does and the market is hard to argue with. The market does, however change.

I suspect (and this is pure supposition on my part here) that as the number of unaltered vintage kits becomes fewer so the player market will start being more constant and perhaps even bouyant.

The furniture antique market went from everything having to be in "found" state to everything having to be reconditioned as if new because people actually wanted to use them.

The same, I suspect, will be the case with drums - once we get past the people who are buying just to have, there are a lot of folk who want vintage drums because they sound good and want something that looks good and can also function in a contemporary playing setting - either with stuff like "RIMS" for the toms or snare stands but that has the "correct" original fittings as well stuff.

But that's probably a few years off yet - we'd need a genuine boom in drum collecting first and with the US economy looking a bit sick, it probaby won't happen right now.

This probably doesn't help one little bit but it's fun to speculate.

David

I was ready to pull the trigger on a new dw three piece kit but they just didn't have the depth of my vintage Slingerlands. Thats what prompted me to put together my "players kit". New bass drum spurs, floor tom legs, patch the holes ( which I inlayed wood the same material as the shells ), rims mount and finish of my choice and I got a killer kit for a fraction of the cost, not to mention the vintage edges. It would be nice to see the players market get a bump, there are a lot of good shells out there waiting to be saved from the landfills.

Thanks for all of your replies! The opinions that have been expressed have been very helpful. Keep them coming! Clapping Happy2

My outlook on this is if I'm gonna play vintage drums, they better be exactly as they were from the factory. I guess I'm one of those "all original" people. If I were to have a kit restored, I would want it to be exactly as new. Although, I can see someone outfitting sets with newer hardware, like RIMS mounts and such, I would prefer the original hardware. If it ain't good enough to play now, then it must not have been good back then either right? I was told awhile back, that "... if you're gonna have vintage drums, you should let the rest of the world enjoy them both in sound and visually." That made sense to me then and still does today. Would I bring a vintage kit to an outdoor gig where the weather is unpredictable?? Probably not, but I wouldn't hesitate to bring them to another gig. Why not let people see the drums of yesteryear as they were?? Basically, I would not pay the same for an "altered" kit as I would an original. It's like buying a classic car kind of. Would you pay the same for a 1970 Dodge Charger, numbers matching big block or one that was originally a big big block and someone put in a 318 small block because it was better on gas??? hmmmmmm .... I may have just stumped myself on that one!!! Laughing H

I like my drums real. I dont like implants. Implants might look really good........but no matter what they look like.. they arent the real thing.

Don't get me wrong, I am a purist, I love the perfect, all original un-altered kit, I just want to keep it that way, thats just me. My players kit is still a very vintage kit, just custom. My old drum instructor would say " its more about the hardware than the drums" Those old bass drum spurs, can't tell you how many times I chased my bass drum around because I couldnt put nails in front of it. Check out some of the old footage of Joe Morello playing with Dave Brubeck, he has to pull his bass drum back in the middle of a solo. Just my 2 cents.

I wasn't actually advocating adding new stuff. If I look at my situation with Camco stuff, the only really chronic part is the bass drum to tom mounting. Everything else is really good.

I keep the mounts there, keep the arm that connects them in my case and just use an extra snare stand instead just as many of the sixties players did - it's my way of improving and customizing in a "vintage sensitive" way but I totally understand when people use RIMS (it just doesn't look as cool).

The argument "if it ain't good enough to play now, then it must not have been good back then either right?", with all due respect, doesn't quite hold.

Increased amplification totally re-wrote the book for rock drummers - most of the old hardware just can't handle the relatively hard playing you need to compete with that.

People didn't change all the fittings on old drums because they wanted to spend more money or enjoyed drilling holes and Japanese drums (and particularly hardware) didn't flatten all the competition just because they were a bit cheaper - the hardware did the job better for the gigging drummer. Even as early as 73-74 I can remember us all wanting US drums but Japanese hardware.

You can discuss whether all the double-brace monsters now are relevant but I, for one, couldn't get by without single braced stands. Flat-bases and some of those old tom mounts just don't cut it.

In short keep it original - but accept that they also have to somehow be playable in a modern setting.

Cheers,

David

Well I gotta say the clip style tom mount on this '66 Slingerland Modern Solo kit that slides into the diamond plates on the toms does not provide a great deal of flexibility when adjusting the toms. It's certainly solid and simple but without a reliable rubber hose on the post between the toms to keep them tipped in... my rim clicking during fills sounds like a team of Clydesdales.

As my dad likes to say... "the guy that came up with this should make one more to fix it and quit!"

Or it could be... I just suck.Lame