Cool Well I?m pretty sure I know what it is and I am kind of sure of its dating, but I had to have a reason to post this up on the forum ? so let me just post a thread about this drum set to share a story.

First off it is not a museum kit, and it was not in mint condition ? but it really is an original Rogers Cozy Cole Constellation Drum Set in Mardi Gras Pearl with beavertail lugs and the original matching Dyna-Sonic snare drum that came with the set also in beavertail lugs!!! The sizes are 22-13-16 along with the matching 5 X 14 optional Dyna-Sonic.

To top it off, I found this set in my own backyard, so to speak, and with someone that I know! I have been on a quest to buy a Rogers Mardi Gras set for little while now & along the way I bought a Leedy Shelly Manne kit in Fiesta pearl, and a Leedy Shelly set in Mardi Gras, these were both very cool & ?rare? (David forgive my use of the term here) sets from 1958/59. But no Rogers Mardi Gras set, I had inquired and asked about sets that were unsold but either the owner did not want to sell or they were already gone.

So when I found out that a local musician friend of mine sold vintage drums and he had a Mardi Gras kit I was really excited and interested to check it out. Little did I know that what he had was a beavertail kit with the matching Dyna-Sonic to boot! How cool can that be to find this incredible set in your own backyard with a friend. He is one of those guys who would go out to yard sales, estate sales and follow up on ads in the paper and find these great deals on old drums and guitars & cars for that matter.

This set was originally ordered and owned by a local rock n roll personality in the mid 60?s. My friend played in his band in the late 70?s and he acquired the kit from him sometime afterwards. The set remained idle until it was used as the house kit at a benefit show in 1996 that was held for him. He is a great Detroit bass player that suffered a heart attack and being a working musician, he had no insurance. So some of the Detroit musicians got the music community together and put on this benefit show that raised money to help him pay the doctor bills. Since that show the kit has been on the shelf in his basement along with several other cool vintage drums and gear that he has picked up over the years at guitar shows, yard sales & flea markets.

It took a while for my friend to make the decision to sell, but once he did the first thing I did was to send the Dyna-Sonic to Jack Lawton for some badly needed restoration work. The drum had paint spots on the interior finish and was missing some of its original hardware, plus the hardware that was present was not in the best condition. In the end I decided to sacrifice a mint COB from the same time period and transfer all its hardware onto the Mardi Gras Dyna-Sonic to bring it back to an outstanding condition in its original configuration ? BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!

I received a lot of help and guidance from certain key individuals on this project and wanted to thank Tommy P & Harry C along with Don R & Ken K and a special thank you to my anonymous California friend/connection who really got me turned onto these cool kits!

And now that I have got everything in order I wanted to show off this beautiful, and I guess you could say, ?rare? drum set for the forum members and share this story.

It is authentic and for real, it is not perfect, but it is a complete & original Rogers Constellation kit in Mardi Gras pearl and beavertail lugs along with the original Dyna-Sonic snare that came with this set from the mid 60?s.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?