I collect vintage snare drums from the 1900s to the 1940s...I collect for all of the above reasons although the "investment" aspect of it is last on the list...I like the idea of preserving the heritage of those great American snare drums...I do try to collect all the sizes and colors just like a baseball card collector would try to collect complete teams...

Mike Curotto

i am not a collector i play vintage for the sound and quality..i still think it is a good deal compared to todays drums ..

O-Lugs,

I find my self drawn to these vintage drums because of their beauty and their sound, it is like a piece of art and you, or someone else can make those drums sing. Being involved in a band, not as a drummer but a "singer", supposedly, I was drawn to the look of the and the feel of the vintage drums.

I bought my first set off Ebay about 4 years ago, it was a 67 Ludwig 5 piece in Champagne Sparkle and I thought it looked so cool. That kit was bought for my band to use as a practice set at my house. But I kept checking other drums and sets out, from the 60's. I think that it is like a piece of my history from when I was growing up and they have a practical use too.

Drums and drum collecting also are much more affordable than guitars and guitar collecting from what I know for the average person. A nice old 1950's Gibson or Les Paul just does not turn me on like a 1950's Slingerland or a Rogers Mardi Gras kit does, but from what I know from my guitar playing friends - it is alot of money to get serious about old amps and guitars.

Drums, on the other hand, are very reasonable and I can afford to buy a quality vintage kit or snare, that I can enjoy, and use for the band. And it seems that at the very least, I can get my money back if I need to sell. So I think that is not a bad deal when you get the enjoyment of owning a set and using the gear (in the right circumstances), and at least you can get back what you put into the deal.

The other part of this Vintage collecting is it is fun! Trying to get all the right pieces together to restore a snare or put together an authentic kit is an enjoyable exercise. They don't make anymore of these drums / sets, so it is a challenge to get all the right and nice pieces together to recreate an original set. Once you do put a kit together or restore a snare to its original glory, it is a rewarding accomplishment. The hardware is probably the hardest and the costliest part of it too!

So these are some of my reasons for collecting vintage drums and I am sure that they are not unique, but I like to share and talk to other people on a forum like this who have that same interest. That is fun too, plus you meet and make new friends!

There are fan collectors, too. Really...

I think I have the "vintage anything" bug. I have never owned a new drum kit in my life except for my first entry level Japanese stencil kit (a Riviera, trivia fans). My house is full of furniture from the 1930's, much of which I've restored myself.

But when i statted to get serious about playing I got three mid sixties Premiers in WMP over a few years for next to nothing which I mixed and matched until I eventually gave up because of the damned metric size head thing (near impossible to find). Also had a Rogers script floor tom somewhere in there.

Then traded up to a mid-sixties Ludwig classic Ringo style and dabbled a bit with Slingerland and Gretsch snares before my drum teacher waved his large size (wait for it) Camco kit in my face. The Ludwig got sold and the Camco got bought.

I did at one point have three Camco kits but would never have called myself a collector - people just kind of came to me and offered them up. Then I got rid of them through lack of space and not playing professionally anymore.

But now I am down to one kit with a couple of snares but I can feel that obsessive, slightly unhealthy "collector mentality" creeping up on me. 'Cause at one point I started buying a couple of old pieces of furniture - and this became an obsession. I slowly became a minor expert on art deco furniture and became fascinated by the craftsmanship of the pieces (this being the last gasp of furniture craftmanship before mass production really took hold). And I guess it's the same with the older drums (and particularly from the smaller companies) - you can see there was still a person involved in the process and stuff had personality.

The furniture thing has had its upside - I now know how to restore almost any drum that should ever come my way with care and reverence (even down to French polishing a pre-war drum if I ever actually found one).

The other is that I regularly hit flea markets. The internet has made everyone an expert about everything and this has all but killed the genuine "find" but they still do happen. I once picked up a mint 1965 Ludwig Supraphonic for 400 Danish kroner (that's about 65 dollars) - 'cause it was "old" it got sold at a place where they sell "old stuff". Sold it just last year for 400 GBP to someone in London. Just those chance encounters are enough to keep me in there.

So the point of this overly long dissertation is...actually not sure I have a point except for "this is not as unhealthy as it seems" (try telling your wife that) and keep on doing it, I guess.

David