If I had to choose an era it would be 1960-1969. The 70s were pretty good except for disco era. Every one is including drummers that influenced them so these are mine , Drummers like Cozy Cole-(topsy) Buddy Rich & Gene Kupa(hope I spelled it right) Joe Morello for Jazz/swing, Sandy Nelson & the drummer for elvis (can't remember his name right now) that gave me a more modern sound. John Bonham for great bass chops and the drummer for the Mahavista Orchestra ( sure was fast and I also cannot remember his name). Also later the group Rush and Neil.

Charlie Watts, Ringo Star didn,t do much for me. As for a Guitar, a beat up Sears and Roebuck electric gave the most bang for the buck when feedback & effects were needed, remember it was back in the day. Sure was a great ride.

TOM - An Old Drummer

Mapex is an amazingly large and well organized (and insanely successful) company. Spend a moment researching the incredible output and the sheer vastness of the factory footprint and you begin to grasp the genesis of our topic - Vintage Drums.

Our world is driven by VALUE.

How one defines that word (value) ... well, that's what leads to our unique characteristics.

When you put a high value on time, you are acutely aware of all that you compress within a 24 hour period.

When you put a high value on family and honor, you base your decisions accordingly.

When you put a high value on money, you do all you can to maximize take and reduce give.

The US is a free market within a capitalistic system.

By it's very nature, money is the be all and end all.

Therefore, time is money, buy low sell high, use cheaper parts to lower production costs, labor is the single largest output for most companies, etc,

Handcrafting takes time and is very costly to manufacturing.

We buy and collect Vintage Drums because there will never be any more built. Ever.

That is what my earlier statement inferred.

Not to repeat myself but I picked 60s. As long as we're on drummer influences, Ringo was the reason I became a drummer, I actually wanted to play guitar like George, but to my dissappointment my public school didnt offer free guitar lessons, so "Drums like Ringo" is what I told the band teacher back in '67. Shortly after I declared my choice of drums my uncle gave me the Roach vs. Rich album and said "forget about that long haired bum Ringo, no one will even remember his name in 10 years". The second album I owned was Zepplin IV, the third and fourth respectively were Nursery Crimes, and Selling England by the Pound.

So Ringo, Rich, Roach, Bonzo, and Collins were my influences, and they played Luddies, Slingys, Rogers, and Gretsch

Rogers 1963 Beavertails through 1984 XP8, with the majority of the emphasis between 1963-69.

if i had to pick a era that would be hard to do...95% of the drums i have snare's and set's are from 1920-1980...Mikey

46-59...Transition Badge Ludwigs and WFLs, Trans stamp and 50s stamp Zildjians, 3-ply Gretsch round badges, lighter Ks. I almost said 60s, but then I quickly wised up...;)

Again, as I have posited in your other poll, surely sound is the qualifying criteria; everything else is irrelevant: construction quality, durability and finish vary from era to era as well as make to make.

There are dozens of superb quality, finely crafted and exemplary drums produced today: the Australians, for an odd example, are doing things that will definitely attain 'vintage' desirability. I remember buying a Noble and Cooley snare drum back in the mid 'eighties that was not only revolutionary, but also displayed an attention to detail that far outstripped the efforts of what you term vintage. I certainly feel that DW's better offerings will go down in history. Canopus are another example. Etc, etc, etc. I can't even begin to list all the qualified offerings; perhaps someone else can?

We have to agree to disagree. There is nothing new today that could be classified as Vintage tomorrow. Don't misunderstand my meaning here ... I agree that quality is built into some of these. But, I do not agree with attaching the term Vintage Drum to them. In time, they will age. No doubts. But, they will age differently. These are mass-produced drums for the most part and in no way hand-crafted. The ingredients are VERY different and will play a major part in how they age. Just because something is old does not mean it is Vintage. That term is derived from the wine industry and we should be fairly selective where it is used. It carries a lot of baggage with it that cannot be excised from the equation. Again, we should just agree to disagree.

Surely you can't call the Noble and Cooley snare drum mass produced; or the Brady offerings; these are what I would almost call 'Bespoke' items. I don't think we will ever hear a modern drum that will sound the same as my DeQueen Gretsch and I supose in that sense, as I said in another post, it was the end of an era; but i took both the Gretsch and the Noble and Cooley out on the road and into the studio and in both situations the N&C triumphed. The point is, the Gretsch was, apart from the finish, mass produced; the N&C was not. Fifty years down the road that snare drum will be changing hands for enormous sums of money and will definitely be called a 'Vintage' drum. Perhaps we have now arrived at what I have always considered exemplifies the term 'Vintage', and that is the Brooklyn Gretsch drums. Strange as it may seem, I have never heard a one. Also, pre CBS Rogers always struck me as part of the 'Vintage' world; and again, I have never heard one. WFL and Leedy, yes; pre 70s Slingerlands, yes. Today, Yamaha, no! Tomorrow, possibly the RCs. No, I think, semantics aside, we probably agree on most things. I still say that in every case, the qualifying criteria has got to be 'sound'.