Let's see;

VHS vs. Beta

MP3 vs. DVD

Lady Gaga vs. Norah Jones

The short answer...nope. Always a good question though.

Kook, why are you still harping on the Beatles? Good grief, let it go already.

It's interesting that the comparisons and discussions in this thread start with the 1960's. Let's not forget that during the 1920's, 30's and 40's, there were some magnificent drums being manufactured here and overseas (Europe).

Compared to the quality and craftsmanship that went into the drums of the 1930's, many of the 60's and 70's offerings pale by comparison. Check out a 1930's Leedy Parallel snare drum or a 1920's Ludwig & Ludwig "Super-Ludwig". They make many of the 1960's drums look cheap by comparison. Not knocking more modern drums at all, but the early years, which I consider the true "Golden Age", produced lots of incredible sounding and looking drums.

Just my two cents.....:2Cents:

One thing occurred to me regarding the popularity of drum companies and that was the educational market. Ludwig really hammered the school music programs of the 60's and 70's. How many kids started with a Jazz Festival or later on an Acrolite. They sold marching percussion for days and coupled that with their Musser mallet percussion. How many schools had anything but Ludwig tympani? Seems like Slingerland was probably a distant second in that market. To my knowledge neither Gretsch or Rogers had much of a presence in schools. So the kids were seeing their heros playing Ludwig and they had wall to wall Ludwig gear at school. The Ludwig gear was priced competitively when it came time to purchase a kit. Was there another company out there in the mind of many kids?

I think you couple the artist roster, the school presence, competitive pricing and the fact that Ludwig's design aesthetic always looked (and still does look) contemporary and you can see why they were tough to beat.

Pretty certain it's been Gretsch, since 1883. Maybe we should be talking centuries?

Hope this helps.

B

Beautiful kit Bill. I always liked that photo.

It seemed like all I saw were Ludwig, Rogers, and Gretsch drums in the '60s, then in the '70s Pearl, and eventually Yamaha, but I was playing Kent drums and would have traded them and my little brother for a set of Rogers or Gretsch's.

Of the US companies selling drums in the '60s and '70s, Ludwig was by far the most popular, if we're talking highest sales figures. Just look around craigslist or ebay and you'll see that vintage Ludwigs outnumber the other brands by a good margin.

I agree. In the 60's Rogers and Gretsch sales were tiny compared to Ludwig, and Slingerland. MIJ stuff was considered second rate and rarely seen at gigs.

If you want an educated guess for late 70's to now, find back issues of drum magazines and count the ad pages for manufacturers. The ad page count usually tells the story for market share.

When I started playing in '75, the only nice kits in the music stores that I frequented were Ludwig Vistalites. I do remember one super-nice Rogers 5-piece with Memori-Loc hardware. Slingerland was the other popular brand here, lots of guys playing them, but I don't remember seeing any new kits for sale. Of course we all wanted the Buddy Rich kit from the Slingy catalog! As to Gretsch, I thought they only made guitars!

I was seeing a lot of Gretsch and Rogers, and Ludwig too, and longing for Ludwig's mostly because of Ringo, But I eventually settled for a set of Pearls, but then I noticed Steve Gadd, Billy Cobham and Peter Erskine playing Yamaha and they became the focus of my attention, and it seemed that by the early '90s all I saw were Japanese drums.