Fellow Members,Soap Box

As stated in the OP regarding the "Time Machine" Rogers kit that was on eBay that didn't sell. I was the person who was contacted by the seller first and acquired them.

First, I'm going to call these "Factory Original", as I'm not even sure that term has been used in the Vintage Drum Collecting Community! After getting these home from a long trip(6 hours to Ohio to pick them up, then 5 hours to visit my parents, then 6 more hours home today!), I've unpacked them and mocked them up. I did this to unbox them, check over each box and it's contents, and see if there were any missing parts. The only missing item(s) are (4) set screws(BTW-If anyone has 4 to spare, please PM me-Thx), and of the two sets of sticks, only one "Buddy Rich" drum stick.

It was an amazing feeling taking these out of the boxes and setting them up. I worked slowly, as a feeling came over me. I felt as if I was being watched, but it was a pleasant kind of thing. I noticed that I had broke a light sweat and stopped to wipe my brow when the Christmas clock chimed the top of the hour and played a short verse of "Silent Night"! I sat back and looked at what was splayed out in front of me and took a deep breath and looked up toward the heavens and thanked him for his service to our country. After all, he served our country nearly 46 years ago during wartime. It was truly a step back to Christmas 1966! WOW!

Which leads me to the history of these drums;

These drums were bought by the parents of the recipient, the son, who was given these drums for Christmas, 1966. His name is written in pen on the hardware box(I will withhold for privacy), and the last name is on one of the other boxes. Incredibly, there is still a small piece of the white and gold wrapping paper on the pedal box, and inside the floor tom box. Some 1-1/2 years later, he left for the service and went on to Vietnam where he served and came back to be a postal worker for 28 years. Sadly, he passed away this past July at the age of 64 in Troy, Ohio. The Original boxes are quite special, as they show that they had been delivered(not shipped due to proximity) to Thompson & Etter Music directly from the Rogers Dayton plant. Each drum box is date stamped:

5x14 Powertone Snare drum - Sept. 6, 1966

8x12 Tom - Aug. 31, 1966

16x16 Floor Tom - Sept. 9, 1966

14x20 Bass Drum - Aug. 31, 1966

There is no date stamp on either the Accessories box, the cymbal boxes, or the pedal box.

While unpacking Christmas decorations this season(there is even a piece of tinsel in one of the boxes), the Mother, or perhaps wife of the owner, decided to take these to the local music store and see if they were interested in purchasing them. The music stored purchased them and immediately called a friend who played in a 50's band to see if he was were interested. He and his brother scraped up the money and purchased them seeing what they were and immediately listed them on eBay, which is where I first saw them. The listing ended without a single bid. I happened to be the first member to contact him if they didn't sell to discuss closing a deal. We settled on a very agreeable price, and I drove to Ohio to get them!

So there we have it! It's just such an incredible find I am so honored to have them in my collection!

Now that they are home, I want to pose a few questions:

What would you do with them?

Clean them up & put new heads on them? The chrome could use it, even the swan leg HH and snare stand.

Play them?

Leave them just as they are?(That's where I am at)

Take off the original heads so they can be played?

I'm really torn here. It's not my typical find where I clean it up, put new heads on, etc. This is truly "Factory Original" in every sense of the word! All of the head logo's line up with the script logo on the shells. Top and bottom heads. Obviously, that's how they were assembled in Dayton.

Could the heads being on this long deteriorate the shell? Or the head crack itself in time?

Any advice here is appreciated.

I plan to do a photo session of these and put them back into the boxes, and put them away eventually.

Thanks for reading my long post.