Steve Maxwell of Maxwell drums made a point that the fit and finish of the Fullerton(big R) era Rogers drums could be sloppy.

What you are looking at is inconstant fit and finish(kind of like the old GM cars made on Mondays or Fridays).

They lack snob appeal.

Just my opinion.

Some of the colors were bland. The wraps do not age well on the metallic and mist colors. What is left is black and white. The lacquer weathers as well as that on a Fender guitar of the period... but drums weren't cased much by most people so they will not be as good as a comparable period Fender. There are short periods of less than stellar quality control on the edges, but those periods are very short and minor (Not a real reason, they were still better than a lot of other leaders).

The real reason is snob appeal. They aren't Swivomatic.... even though Swivomatic died in 1972 when cast collet tensioners were introduced. I think a majority of vintage drums with Pearl Tom mounts will be Rogers 9/72 era.

As for weighing ... you have to strip the hardware, since 1965 lugs aren't 1970 lugs and aren't 1979 lugs. Speckled grays are going to weigh very close. 68 and 77 Dyna-Sonics weigh very close... less the hardware.

The XP10 snare drums... Dyna-Sonic and SuperTen... are just as good as anything produced in the sweet spot 63-68. The COB Dyna-Sonic of any year is a fantastic drum. The Powertone was never a student quality drum.... same is true of the Acrolite, however, the Acrolite had a Jurassic era throw off and is the one weakness on a great drum. The supra...... suffers from congenital small pox, although the rare one seems to be immune. You do not find barked and peeled Dyna-Sonics, Powertones, or Supertens.

It is snob appeal.

Had a couple of friends (including Vince Colaiuta),back at Brownsville high school that had Rogers swiv o matic and I despised the hardware .

I remember the heel plate screws busted on the bd pedal and I had to use a screwdriver shaft on one side so that we could still use it at stage band practice.

The drum throne broke and Colaiuta fell off backwards onto the floor and the metal worm screws on the tom holder used to strip out.

I was never really in love with their drums as they sounded flat and a bit like cardboard.

I found the Ludwigs overall a better sounding drum set.

I have a 60's Dyna-Sonic (5 line) fully original and complete with snare bridge and a Big R (no serial#) Rogers USA Dyna-Sonic and I prefer to play the Big R. I guess you could say that the Big R are valuable. They're not cheap drums. The earlier Rogers drums are just MORE valuable and so they should be. It's all about supply and demand. That Big R logo doesn't look too pretty in my own opinion and perhaps that seems to be the general consensus, but I'm very fond of my Big R Dyna. It's certainly a lot cleaner looking than my Fullerton era Dyna-Sonic and to my ear it sounds a little warmer.

Markets are fickle!

Cases in point:

Approximately 20 years ago I was buying and selling more than a few Rogers Holiday drumkits - various models, as well as more than a few Luxor, Powertone and DynaSonic snares.

Each and every full time collector/dealer informed me that they had no value per se, weren't a viable investment, etc., and they weren't interested. Frequently was heard a disparaging remark about the poor quality and ugliness of Swivomatic mounts, hardware which IMHO had never been surpassed in design, quality, and functionality. I did end up selling Rogers drums to various players, mostly through the local newspaper classifieds, but not for prices different than any average used drum.

Then, but a few years later when on a road trip, I purchased from a well known retail drum shop a MINT condition NOS 6/2" x 14" DynaSonic oval badge brass shell snare drum for the sum total of $75.00. All complete with original snare bridge & wires. The store owner was delighted to rid himself of "that thing" which had been sitting in his store window for years and years with nobody wanting it.

Now, jump forward twenty years or so:

Each and each and every dealer/collector who turned their nose up at script badge Rogers Drums fights like cats and dogs to find them, pay top dollar for them and sell them for IMHO high to outrageous prices.

So, you ask, why should Big R Rogers be undervalued in today's market?

My answer: Hang on to them, buy all you can find, and wait for the market to turn in your direction.

Or, if uninterested in dealing drums, just play a top quality vintage Rogers drumset and enjoy life!

If your basing your opinion on Rogers drums on beaten up school drums its no surprise you don't like them. Maybe you should try some concours condition Rogers kit's. You never know.

However I agree with you about Swiv-o. I don't like it either. But thats my opinion.

I remember B/O badge Ludwigs being like that only 10 years ago. Now they're getting very pricey these days.

I wonder if the internet has forced trends a bit. This site is surely one of the most influential sites on the hobby/interest in the world. I wonder what percentage of all the drummers and collectors, or even passing once off buyers who are into older drums, and Pawn brokers must refer to this site. And it seems there is a massive Rogers community on here who more than often make a compelling case for Rogers and Swivo. It must add up.

I only bought a Speedking BD pedal thanks to the conversations on the threads of this site.

Just a thought

They will have their resurgence, as any American-made drums will. As gecko said, 10 years ago you couldn't get squat for a B/O badge Ludwig kit unless it was Vistalite. Now a bunch of drummers in up and coming bands are playing those B/O kits and the prices are going up, up, up.

For me personally, I always disliked Rogers hardware, especially the Big R era. Those huge bass drum spurs, floor tom legs and tom mounts just turn me off visually. I also have never been a fan of those satin-solid finishes.

These weren't school sets.

One was VC's own set(about 3 years old) and another was the a double tom setup(new) owned by the drum section leader at the time.

These were early 70's vintage drums.

The best sounding snares from Rogers in my opinion were the Powertones.

I played a wood 60's 8 lug snare that was quite nice too.

I own a Big R in 24/13/18. Great sound. But, I must say, I'm not so in love with the harware. I've done a thing or two to make the kit sound even better and look a little les odd (removed the pole in the bassdrum and put the rack-tom on a stand after removing it's bracket and filling th e hole. To name few). My kit is black, which I find the best (straight) colour for Big R's. And I like the looks of big Big R's (like mine) better than smaller ones (22/12/13/16). Because the the harware looks relatively less big on a bigger kit. What I mean to say: I think they just don't look to good.