Cannot add anything to that, except, perhaps..... this could prevent some horrible restoration rewraps.

Amen!

I'd like to share a couple of tips for evaluating vintage WMP if I may. It's good to know.

Here's what to look for:

1. You can tell 'faded' WMP by the unevenness of the pattern. One side of the drum (the side exposed to light) will look washed out, cloudy, milky, while the WMP pattern on the other side of the drum will visually appear clear and crisp. Fading is caused by long term exposure to direct sunlight. It clouds the wrap badly.

2. You can tell tobacco stained WMP by the overall dark, 'brownish' toned color/appearance. It will look and -feel- gunky, sticky, gooey. Like the back of those fly-catching strips!

3. WMP that has acquired an age-patina will have the following: the pattern in the wrap will be clear, crisp in appearance. The wrap will -uniformly- (all around the drum,) taken on a 'Golden' glow. There really is no mistaking it. It looks rich. (Study the pix of the Rogers kit on pg.1 of this thread.) That golden, honey color is distributed evenly and all the drums have aged to the same golden shade uniformly. One drum isn't more or less yellow than the others. As vintage WMP kits go, the one in the photos is damn near a 10/10. Perfect patina, excellent overall condition of the instrument. Worth every penny of the $1200 they're asking for it, IMHO.

John

Your points are all valid, John. I know I am in the minority about the WMP, and I made that clear in my post so the OP would take my input with a grain of salt. I just don't like the look of it. I lump yellowed WMP into the same category as patina on cymbals. It is something drummers have looked the other way on for so long, it has transformed from basically being nothing like it's intended form to being desirable in it's current, permanently mutated condition.

I have no hard data on this but I have to believe that WMP is top three in most popular/sold wraps out there. Given this assumption, it only makes sense that vintage drum enthusiast would have to look the other way on the yellowing, which is a flaw in the wrap, because there are just too many kits out there that would have to be passed over or rewrapped if this leniancy was not provided. Why dont' blue wraps turn purple or black wraps turn grey or red wraps turn orange? My 40+year old red tiger pearls' look like the picture in the brochure. This is all coming from a guy who encircles his truck with a bottle of touch up paint, after washing and using a clay bar, and before putting a 3 step wax job on it, about every other week until the winter precludes this habit. So, I just am not able to see something that is permanently altered and think positive about it. It is supposed to be white and it has faded to yellow. Not my cup of tea.

I do agree that original, faded, WMP is better than rewrapping a kit containing this faded wrap and taking another original kit away from the vintage drum enthusiasts who may not even be born yet! Like you sort of eluded to, the color of the wrap doesn't make much difference in the sound of those drums. I would simply take my 12 hundo and look for something else if it was me, and leave those to the guys who can accept them for what they are. It probably doesn't help that I am not much of a fan of basically any white drums.......Falling Do

toodles

drumhack Burger Kinx-mas3x-mas2:Snow Flake:x-mas3

To drum hack: you like what you like. That's cool. That means that there's one less offer on the table for a nearly pristine WMP kit!!!

As far as the patina on WMP, here are my theories why the enthusiasts like patina'd WMP:

1) On a slightly different scale, the yellowed WMP signifies that the kit was not re-wrapped, just like a beat-up guitar with it's original finish signals a guitar with the original finish.

2) The modern wraps just will not yellow like that. It's a combination of the lack of smoke and the modernisation of the wrap material. For one thing- the wrap isn't flammable like the old stuff. Want to start a fire? Light up an old celluloid drum wrap or guitar pickguard- that stuff burns like crazy.

3) Unless the drummer in question took the time to wipe down the drums after each show and stuck them in cases after EACH and every gig, they will yellow. Again- yellowing lends authenticity to the drum in question. I would be very suspicious if I saw a white-white-white WMP kit that is supposedly 50+ years old. If I didn't see a slight yellowing after removing a lug, I would almost certainly write off the kit as a re-wrap.

4) Some people find the yellowing attractive. Yeah- I liked Samantha Fox the first time I saw her on Page 3 of the Sun, and I liked her music (okay, just her videos). Some of my mates fancied her, some didn't.

I may be totally off here- I am a noobie in the vintage drum game.

Sam Fox? Just how old are you?LoLoLoLo

Didn't Lemmy have a whole room of pics devoted to her?

Bloody ancient!!!!

I do believe Lemmy did have a whole room of pix devoted to her; however, I saw her on tele a few years back when I was back home and she not look so great these days...

:(

Why? Was she sagging?Cooked Egg

Time has NOT been good to her, let me say...

Hey guys,

I am pretty good at buying used bikes after having worked as a bike mechanic

for a number of years. I know what potential problems, etc. to look for.

When it comes to drums I am not that confident.

So if I were to go and see these drums, what should I pay attention for?

Thanks!

Look for cracks or bubbles in the wrap (which I don't think you'll find). Look for cracked collets or otherwise "loose" connections between drums and mounts. Look for rough bearing edges. But the pictures indicate a well-kept set of drums, imo.

In all honesty, this looks like a very nice set of drums with the added bonus of having a beautiful patina to the WMP wrap. Only time can provide that kind of patina that is so particular for WMP. Drum collectors and enthusiasts LOVE it! Many feel it looks better than the stark white of the unfaded examples. I, for one, don't gravitate towards the WMP stuff, but when I do, I prefer the patina examples.

Some vintage colors don't fade at all. Others fade really easily (Psychedelic Red. Mod Orange, green sparkle, etc.) unless they are completely kept in the dark. And when those fade, they don't look as good, imo. The green sparkles almost always fade in blotches. The Psych Reds take on a 'patriotic' vibe when the greens fade to white. Mod Orange is MUCH more vibrant with the purples left intact...and so on. But WMP that has yellowed like those Rogers in the pictures is a good thing, imo.

I certainly wouldn't feel bad about peeling off 1250 for a set of drums like that if I was in the market for a Rogers Swivo kit.