looks like I'm actually getting a (gasp) modern kit. baby crawl2

After watching a friend play his tiger Slingys, I have toyed with the idea of selling my late 80s Lugwigs for a vintage set.

Although I do have my Dad's 60s Ralston MIJ kit to play...just need to get it to my house.

I think modern hardware is both ugly as sin,spurs ,huge tubes for double tom holders rims mounts etc. and it is way to overbuilt and heavy Rogers had the best hardware ever in their swivo stuff it was light and well built and tons of it are still working just fine 40 years or so later... you pick up a modern ludwig hihat.. and compare it to a rogers the modern one weighs a ton... modern is not all it is cranked up to be it is just heavy.....the spurs of todays drums are all the same and have no elegance just this ugly stilt looking things again Rogers spurs ,ludwigs curved spurs not only looked good but worked....modern hardware sucks IMO overbuilt and way to pricey

I really like having suspension mounts, swivels on my l-rod arms, and a nice rack. To me it is the best of both worlds. I have that nice vintage sound, and I have modern hardware that allows me to position the drums exactly where I want them. I know that when I was growing up I hated when my toms would slip, the cymbal stands would tip over easily, and the bass drum pedal squeaked and was sloppy. I cursed the hardware then so I sure dont want to deal with that again if I dont have to. Granted, I have not seen any of the Rogers stuff that you speak about.

I can understand that this is a vintage forum and people want the drums to look as they were originally designed, and the nostalgia of having the kits setup the way it was when you were growing up - completely understandable.

I hear ya and i understand what you are saying and to a point agree with you I had a ludwig Hollywood set and the toms always slipped and ended up causing rash on the bass drum and that was one of the main reasons i switched to Rogers drums never had any more of those issues and i just kept playing them for the next 40 years with no issues, I could care less about what something looked like when i was a kid i cared about it working every nite ,tear down drive rinse and repeat and it did ... I hate anything suspension as a hard hitter the stuff flopps around and that would drive me nuts but hey each of us likes what we like and in my book it is Ok by me just voicing the way I feel .....

P.S. If something squeeks grease it ,oil it or fix it cause something ain't right... :)

I love vintage drums but buying them unheard is a risk, imo. The good thing is if you get them for a good price, you can sell them again easily. I had a set of Ludwigs and I loved looking at those drums; but the toms were not great. Ludwig made too many of them in a hurry. If I could buy from CL and hit them first; fine. But I'll never buy 60's Ludwigs again (except for snares) without hearing them first. I took them to gigs no problems. The kick was amazing but I have to have a modern kit too. I love the projection of modern drums. I wouldn't leave myself without a modern kit. But the experience of owning vintage Ludwigs is not something you forget, that's for sure. $00.02

Sounds like the Roger's gear is top notch and ahead of it's time compared to competing vedors of the same era. You must really thrash those toms to get em bouncing around like a pair of boobs on prom night Laughing H I havent had that problem with my toms/suspension mounts. Sadly, I didnt have that problem on prom night either. Stupid girls didnt recognize the stud hidden within the nerd at the time LoLoLoLo

The best part is that my drums didnt get drunk and pass out on prom night and I still have them!

Ok, I also played Yamaha for a long long time, and then got Ludwig 3-ply.

I have one advice: keep them both!!!! They are both great drums, but very different.

I love the Ludwig, but also still love the Yamahas!!!!!

Keep both if you can ;)

That's why my favorite sets tend to be "Player's kits". My Dayton Roger's is the perfect example. Maybe the best drums ever made in the US. But, they've been modded. The dreaded Pearl tom mt lets me put a ride in the other hole, eliminating a stand. They're both memory locked. I've got my collar lock faux mem locks on all legs. So I get in with two cymbal stands, and things in the same place every time. And since they were "improved", they were dirt cheap! The Luddies have been rewrapped, I use my DW flat base stands, and still end up with a minimal bag. And they look and sound great, both of 'em....