I like to play my vintage gear whenever I can. It feels great to me. I do have to be careful about some of my sets. I have a 1968 psych red rock duo double bass set and a 1969 mod orange that are fun. Unfortunately I have to be extra careful if I decide to take them anywhere. The psych red has been out only a couple of times. I mainly use a 22,13,16 1963 silver sparkle super classic. It is in pretty nice shape but I don't have to worry quite as much about it. It also looks classy as well. I can't wait to gig with my newly aquired jazzette set. It kind of scares me what that kit is worth with old K. Zildjians that I use with it. Sounds great though. I really need to find a silver sparkle canister throne though.

My bands would max out at 20 or 30...as time went on, the crowds got smaller!

Let me know when you're playing again. Rich [email]recans@aol.com[/email]

LOL! I know...I know...

Don't get me wrong...In SOME ways, I appreciate the foreign-trade. My Honda Accord, for example. I love it. I will drive it until it's dead and then I'll probably get another one!

And, I'm glad that people don't use asbestos to insulate their homes anymore...

SOME things have changed for the better...

But, drum sets have always been one of those "American" things. The drum set cut its teeth on American music and helped it to evolve into all the great things it did. No argument that there are many other drum set players from all over the globe who played great and still do play great...but the history behind it all is mostly an American thing. So, when I associate the modern evolution of the drum set, I always see it as culminating at the end of the 60's and into the first half of the 70's. After that, everything changed. In order to stay competetive, corners got cut more and more...sloppiness and cheapness ensued...no design evolutions were even being attempted anymore...it was just about business competition.

"Ma & Pa" music stores are almost just a memory to many of us, now, too! That's another related thing...How many of us can remember "our" music shop -places where the floor was that tile-linoleum stuff and there were bins of sheet music in one corner and a bunch of Fender and Gibson guitars hanging on the wall...and, of course, the beloved window-displays with the drum sets -so that even when you were jsut driving by, you could see what was in there. All the magic of that went (or is going) out the door. Big monster music stores are a completely different experience from the small music shop in any small town USA. That's why, whenever I travel across the midwestern states, I take the path that leads me into the towns that might -jusssst miiiiight have a music shop wit a dusty back room with some old, un-opened boxes marked "Gretsch Birdland Cadillac green" or something like that! heh

I'm always glad whenever I meet or communicate with other drummers who feel a serious need to claim and restore these old gems. There's a lot of personal nostalgia and history attached to them! Ludwig drums and Rogers drums and Slingerland drums and Gretsch drums and any of the drums that were in the musical instruments section of the Sears and Roebuck catalogs were about the only thing on my mind when I was a kid....until I turned about 13...and then that's a whole other story! But, I digress...Burger Kin

HA HA, Tell me about it, I stripped a 1956 Gold Top Les Paul, and a 65 Sunburst Stratocaster down to Natural wood finishes, because they had some scratches on them. lol

I was a kid, and had no idea how much they?d be worth in original condition.

I can still probably get at least $25.000 to $30.000 for the Les Paul and maybe about $5.000 for the Strat. But if I?d left them alone, they?d be worth a lot more. They were both given to me by my Dad, and I was too young to know any better. lol

If we had only known,heck I`d of bought a pound of gold.While I agree with most of the postings,hindsight is 20/20 we didn`t know this stuff was going to be worth it`s weight in gold.Most of us thought it would go on and on.Just like muscle cars and 5o cent a gallon gas.I currently only own one complete set of Rogers,a blue mist XP 8 seven piece kit.Took all my tax money and then some to get it,let alone the dynasonic snare.I got back into this after my last marriage,had played for 20 plus years prior to that.I do gig my Rogers set and we do a small venue,maybe not Manhattan,but small none the less.I only gig 5 piece,I`m carefull not to scratch anything and watch how close I set everything up.I have yet to get a complete set of the vintage stands,so I`m not overly concerned about them.Everyone is right no one will ever build drums like this again.IMO the xp8 shells are some of the finest Rogers ever used and yes I had Fullertons and have most of a Dayton and Cleavland kit as well.The shells were always provided by the same fine company.Rogers and Ludwigs were the two big hitters in the sixties and seventies.Most people that played Sonors or Grestch kits were just a little different,heck I felt like a traitor when I choose Rogers over Ludwig.All the other guys in school were playing Ludwigs.I was attracted to the hardware and the sound.There is just something way cool about a Rogers kit and it`s sound.So like I say I gig mine we don`t have roadies,who can afford them anymore.I`m lucky to make $75.00 to 100.00 per night,so it`s not about the money.As we age we are happier just to get to play,I`m 52 and having more fun now than I did in the eighties.So keep and aquire all the vintage drums,pedals,stands and the like that you can afford.Kepp on rockin,or jazzing,or whatever it is you play,unless you have a museum kit take it out and play it.That is what both you and the drums want anyway.Gary

I always cared. Kept them clean. Kept the parts together. Kept them in cases all those long years, at least when they werent set up in a church for 4 or more years at a stretch. Any time the drums came down, they were cased. If I played out, they went in cases.

Set up, nothing touched. I have ZERO snare rub on my 13. This year the set is 30 years old. I resisted all the stupid urges......... like sanding off the speckled gray trunk paint from the inside of the shells, and taking the dynasonic frame off the drum. And even more.........I always said no when someone asked if they could Borrow my kit for a gig. Still care.........and care more.

I agree...hindsight is always 20/20...bur foresight??? -you're doing well if it's 50/50!!x-mas3

But, here's the deal...there wasn't the collector's market for much of anything back then, let alone drum sets. Nowadays, more people know how to differentiate between vintage and modern and they reap the benefits of such knowledge when it comes to things like furniture, houses and musical instruments -among other things. Drums and drum sets have never been at the high end of that market...but things change. I'm almost willing to bet that certain vintage drums will take on that Fender Stratocaster status one day -for many of the same reasons. So, I guess it's the collectors who are putting on their glasses and trying to improve their foresight!