Ya know, I've come to the conclusion that not every drum "has it" and some just make for pretty display pieces. Those are the ones I pass on to "collectors" while I'd rather have the worn and good sounding ones.

The more I mess with it, the more I'm liking it. Probably the woodiest snare I own.

I agree with almost everything said here, and will add that in my case, the few sets that I've bought on ebay vary wildly in the accuracy of the descriptions by the sellers.

If the pics are not great, you really have no idea of the actual condition until you open the boxes. To make that worse, it can actually be cheaper, easier and less hassle to just keep the kits which don't QUITE live up to their description.

Crapshoot.

The tuning parameters of a six lugger compared to an 8 obviously differ.

Same as a 10 compared to an 8..........in my opinion that is whyu a supraphonic will always sound a bit different ( I didn't say better) than an acrolite, even thought many swear by the acro....I own both and prefer the supra.......

I've bought an awful lot of drums on eBay, and I've had very few problems. The most I had was with Vistalite purchases---I had one bass drum arrive split at the seam. I do always check for a return policy; since it is a crapshoot, one needs some recourse. I'm just thankful for my luck.

My experience is that some drums are built better than others, but sometimes the quirkiness is what will give a drum a particular personality. I can look at an old Slingerland or Ludwig drum and see a crooked badge, off center lug holes, crooked reinforcement rings, etc.....and the thing sounds amazing. Other, newer drums have the build quality of a bank vault and yet have a singularly yawn-inducing sound.

Dan

What makes this a great forum is that you can sound off about a topic like this and get a lot of good responses and not get flamed.

Great posts and all spot on.

I love vintage drums. I just wish I could play every old kit prior shelling out the bucks.

You would think that with all the new technology that one of the drum manufacturers could make a 3 ply shell. Companies like dw have what they call their "Classic" series and a jazz sort of shell using Gum wood to get that vintage sound, but isn't it the 3 ply shell that does it? Were the older Rogers 3 ply? I know they had solid wood reinforcement rings.

I have a 3 ply '71 Rogers Fullerton kit that sings. The Rogers expert here will tell you about the make-up during different era's.

Lucky - Ludwig has come out with "Vintage Classic" 3 ply kits, with the maple- poplar- maple make-up of old. I have not heard them but I know they are big bucks...........puzzling thing is it is offered in only a few colors that differ from the actual vintage kits....strange.....

A friend of mine has a Fullerton kit that blew me away! He is a guitar player and bought this kit for his music room. I put new heads on them and your right, they just sing. I told him that they were too loud for his space (ha ha) and he said he doesn't care what he has as long as he has a kit for people to play. I am going to put something together and make a trade. They need a little work and some parts but a great sounding kit. I will have to check out those ludwigs. Why would they be more expensive? Not as much work to make a 3 ply shell.

Since I started buying vintage drums, I have bought only from various drumboard members that I am familiar with. I have yet to be disapointed, and realize that I am buying 30-40-50 year old drums so I don't expect eq'd quality sound. The fun is in the challenge of seeing what you can bring out of them in terms of sound. Another good thing about vintage, to me, is that they pretty much hold their value, so if you get something you don't like, you can unload it for the same price, if you didn't spend too much on it in the first place.