Ditto on Rogers. Great shells. Great hardware. Not only were Rogers great sounding drums for their time, but also one of the best looking (is there a more elegant looking lug than the Beavertail?)

Ditto time 10 Rogers IMO are the very best drums ever made and hardware too and the hardware was sexy for it's time completely new and out of the box thinking created it ....

where I would argue that Gretsch made the best drums of the 60s

Rogers are right up there with them ......they have a great sound

Rogers were among the innovators of the sharp bearing edge and were doing it years before mostly anyone.

they also were one of the first to make their shells ever so slightly smaller so that the sharp bearing edge would float the head instead of the head hugging the shell

they seem to always keep their round no matter what condition you find them in as a result of their heavy duty glue rings .

they tend to be a bit heavier......but sound so beautiful

they and Gretsch were also the first to make shells first using cross lamination then adding the wrap as opposed to Luddy and Sling who would sometimes wrap their drums during the bend leaving that undesirable bump

Rogers also probably had the widest tuning range of the big 4 in the 60s being. Ludwig, Slingerland, Gretsch, Rogers.

a very close second being Gretsch.

I feel Gretsch and Rogers sound much better at a high tuning where the other two tend to choke out when cranked a bit .

playing mostly jazz I prefer a high tuning

I prefer the quick dry stick attack tone of a Gretsch due to the rounded to the outside bearing edge and the cast hoops .....but Rogers are without a doubt fantastic tubs and probably my second favorite drum of the 60s

Rogers are probably the best vintage drums for a rock situation

of course no disrespect intended to Ludwig, Slingerland, or even Premier and Camco ......all top notch premo drums of the 60s

I absolutely love them all

Ah yes, and therein lies our problem. We want them all.. Hence this forum. :)

problem indeed

I need to start a thread for suggestions on what to tell my wife when she asks where all the money goes

:)

What about Leedy lugs? Those are my favorite. Very art-deco and great drums as well. I can't speak to 60's SlingerLeedys...but my '49 Leedy kit is top notch.

I agree, I got into vintage drums when I was 20 years old and haven't looked back. We all have our brand allegiances, some more so than others, but I think most of us can agree that they just don't make em like they used to.

At the concert I attended this past sunday........ a mixed 60s/70s Rogers five ply, and a modern DW. That was cool. The Rogers had nothing to be ashamed of ... they rocked. It really was an even playing field. And that was way cool.

I am a Rogers guy. All of my sets are Rogers. Most of my snares are Rogers. Yeah, I am a collector, but what I play, I play by choice, and that choice, has pretty much decided my collection. It was not the other way around.

I owned a set of Ayotte Custom drums for ten years. Extremely well made, high quality, excellent musical instruments. There are aspects of detail in them you wont find on a 60s set of ANY drums. Those things are improvements, and worthy of recognition and respect. However, none of those improvements or attentions to detail are of quality or calibre enough to justify selling off a glorious sounding set of 60s Rogers. And frankly speaking, there just was not that much difference in them. A more finely sanded bearing edge, a lacquered interior vrs the flat gray paint of Rogers Cleveland or early Dayton drums, a furniture grade lacquer finish on the outside vrs. wrap. As for the Ayottes, I sold those.

The one thing I just did not "get" about the Ayotte drums was the 12 inch tom 10 inches deep (10x12). Why build drums of that quality and make your toms to the same sizes as cheap asian luan imports? The traditional sizes Rogers produced 8x12, 9x13, 10x14...worked very well, they continue to work very well today in any kind of music. And honestly, a Rogers 8x12 sounded better than the Ayotte 10x12. As for mounts, there is not a whole lot of fundamental difference between the Ayotte bridge mount that attaches to the shell on top of an isolation gasket under the lug, and is secured by the lug screws that pass through the shell, and Rogers Swivomatic.

Rogers Swivomatic is rock solid, and yet it allows movement of the tom as it is played, something that promotes resonance. Swivomatic did not need RIMS.

The modern bearing edge, an edge profile of 1/16" and shells smaller than call size were an innovation of Rogers drums in the early 60s, way before anyone else was doing it. They sounded great then,

and they sound great today.

I had a similar situation with a set of custom Spaun drums I owned a few years ago.

beautifully crafted instrument.....but the sound was just not for me

very bright and sort of "boingy" for lack of a better term

where there are many extremely well crafted drums today I feel they lack the personality of the drums of yesteryear.

I feel like if you took a someone who really knows drums into a room blind folded and hit all 60s era Ludwig, Slingerland, Gretsch, and Rogers toms....I firmly believe that they would be able to tell you which was which

as to if you took that same guy and hit a modern DW, Starclassic, Yamaha, and Pearl they would have some trouble telling you which was which

I don't care what anyone says

I have been told that my love for vintage drums is purely romantic

where there definitely is some romance involved.....even moreso it is the construction, the tones, and the overall feel of the instrument that I very much prefer

...and I was not around in the 60s when these drums were new

I am only 37 but my first kit was a '65 Slingerland

then I owned a bunch of new kits.

Tama

DW

Pearl

Spaun

then I found a 70s Ludwig in my friends attic and it was all over

since then I have had many 60s Ludwigs, a few Rogers, and now I have a Gretsch obsession

none of those new kits I had even came close to any of my vintage kits

even the 60s Luddys that were a complete pain in the tail to tune

:)