Collector? I'm not sure if i could call myself that...Hoarder...maybeLoLoLoLo I've been buying and selling drums since I was 15 and I'm 41 now so you do the math. To make matters worse, I play guitar too which merely compounds my issues. At times my office looks more like a used instrument store than a place to work but I digress.

On the guitar forums there's a term that gets thrown around alot: G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and I have been suffering from it for many years. I honestly believe it's a form of addicition in that you are always looking for the next "fix" even after scoring what you think was the piece. It's certainly been a productive and somewhat lucrative pastime for me personally but I have come to terms with the fact that I'll never be satisfied..which is half the fun, isn't it?;)

I don't think I'm a "collector" yet anyway. I bought what I thought was a decent set of conga drums in 1977 - that was about a year after I hung up my sticks and sold my 1969 Gretsch drum. I held onto the congas and started to play them again a few years ago.

I had a 31 year rest - 76 to 2007. I bought a Gretsch Renown kit and started playing again. I started to acquire snare drums.......slowly.

Then I bought a 1949 Gretsch Parade drum and restored it. That was fun.

My wife (she's an enabler) bought me a 1970's Carlton snare drum.........nice ole drum.

Then last fall, quite by chance because I was not looking to buy them, I saw what I consider to be my 'holy grail' of drum kits = 1958 Gretsch in 20/12/14/14 matching snare GOLD SPARKLE. They were litterly down the street from me. My wife was alerted to the desperation in my body language and verbal tones. Bless her heart she was very supportive with me buying them. It took me four months to restore them. It felt so good it led me to buy and restore another old Gretsch snare drum recently.

I'm in withdrawl right now but I'm looking on eBay.....................I love this stuff - what a great hobby in my old age. I play all my drums.

The conga drums are a complete set of Valjes including SuperTumba & bongos and I love playing them.

I would like to be a "collector/player"...........maybe I'm on my way there now.

I have been playing drums for 51 yrs. and teaching drumset/percussuion for 47 yrs...the vintage drum collecting bug bit in March of 1995...I always had 7-10 old snare drums lying (laying?) around and but never paid attention to the vintage aspect of them until I started to read about vintage drums in certain books...my first trade (deal) was in March of 1995 with Sam Adato in SF and from then on I've been actively pursuing rare American-made vintage snare drums and having an absolute blast do so!...John Aldridge got me interested in Black Beauties so I set a goal to acquire every model and size DeLuxe (Black Beauty) from 1919 to 1935, I'm about 95% there....I'll have all of my 540 snare drum photos at Steve Maxwell's booth at the Chicago Show so feel free to have a look.

Mike Curotto

I never considered myself a collector. I just have tools I use to do get jobs done. The same as I have a belt sander, I have a few sets of hi hat cymbals. I have bought almost no drums or cymbals in 30+ years and am not looking for any. I was lucky and got good stuff way back that's still good enough.

For me it's always been about songs. As soon as the focus gets off of the song and starts becoming the tool - a drum, a cymbal or a mic, things start to go weird. It should always be, #1, about the song.

Yes, if you are in that end of the business and need to serve the song in the correct musical way...collecting drums doesn't deter from anything musical, it's just old drums that are cool, rare and valuable.

Mike Curotto

never been a collector other than spare parts, always been a player and still am,i played Rogers drums for 45 years never found anything better so just kept playing them then one day some guy says nice vintage kit.. I say OK.. lol now i am playing a ludwig classic maple Bonham set I always wanted to play one keyword being played... I love lookin at them but 1st priority is beat hell out of them..

The day I saw these dirty Ol'Slingerlands at a yard sale and said to my lovely wife... "Honey, I always wanted learn to play the drumset!" and she said.. "You're an f&^%ing idiot!"

That sealed the deal... they were going home with me. :) 4 kits and 5 snares later... I'm thinking she might have been right. ;)

I bought a 1966 red sparkle Downbeat snare drum on a whim back in 1985...shelved it because I didn't like the sound of it....just bought it because it was cool and the price was right ($50).

Years later, a friend bought me a red sparkle Jazzette bass drum as a gift.

About a week after that, I saw a red sparkle Downbeat shell pack on EBay and bought it so that I could have the little bebop kit I had been wanting....didn't even realize what was accumulating, i.e., a full Downbeat kit and an option for a Jazzette, too, by just switching the bass drums.

Then I got word there was a blue sparkle B/O badge Ludwig kit in virtually untouched condition -original heads and no marks on them, etc. So, I bought it.

Then my folks went to an estate auction and saw a complete Ludwig Junior kit and bought it for me.

Add to that, my pre-existing "working" drums (Rogers Big R from 1975) and the Arbiter kit I bought in 1999 because I thought they were the coolest drums I ever saw in my life (and STILL do!)

When I finally looked up, I had a bunch of drums!

I joined this forum in 2005 and it led me to find the 1969 Jazzette -again in RED sparkle! I don't know what it is about red sparkle....I must be a magnet for it or something.Burger Kin

Then, a friend gave me a custom made studio kit.

And then I bought a King Bopkat kit

I still find Supras and Acrolites around....various hardware packages....

I never intended to "become" a collector. I just ended up with a lot of nice, old drums and kits because of my lifelong interest in drumming. It's just like anything else one does; If you do it long enough, you start to gain some knowledge and you start to be able to answer questions when people ask...but that's not necessarily anything to do with being a collector. It's likely just a result of being older! Burger Kin

One day, someone is going to have to come and collect ME!

For me, I believe it was in 2001 when I bought that first "Second" snare drum. A 1983 Rogers Dynasonic XP10 maple 6.5x14 in absolutely perfect unplayed original condition, with original heads, also unplayed. It all started from there.

I am not a drummer, but I became a collector of vintage drums initially by wanting to start a band late in life. This desire caused me to buy a set of drums as a practice set in my basement for my yet to be band. It was something about those champagne sparkle Ludwigs that in addition to being a practice drum set to provide for my drummer I found them to be beautiful and in some way connected - these were 1967 drums.

I think I became a collector when (after a couple years) I became acquainted with the Rogers drums (from TommyP on this forum as a matter of fact) and set out on a quest to find me the "holy grail" which was a beavertail mardi gras dynasonic snare. My searching old internet links led me to a great drum friend who is a top drawer guy, drummer and vintage drum aficionado. He sold me a real cool vintage Leedy Fiesta Shelly Manne Outfit, It was one of the earliest sets with that finish too! According to DrCWJ's opinion of the pictures and info. It was complete, original and awesome. That was 3+ years ago and that is when I became a collector.

Believe it or not I did eventually discover and buy a real original Rogers beavertail mardi gras dyna-sonic snare drum right here in the Detroit area, and it was with a friend who eventually ended up playing in that band that I started!

I love the sense of having the history and preserving the gear from the mid 1950's to the mid 1960's. I also enjoy the opportunity to set up the gear and play it or have some real drummer get behind one of the sets and let them sing. I also enjoy setting up one of the sets, tuning the drums to my ear and looking at these beautiful drums alot too. For me it is a musical instrument, it is history & it is art/beauty.

In some ways I feel connected to the history of each drum set that I have or have had and that is a good feeling to me.