I see the word Vintage used alot on Ebay and C/L..You know vintage 1980's Tama Swingstar drum set or snare drum..To me a real vintage drum would be from the 1960's and back.I think sellers put the word vintage in the listing to up the price on the drums..Mikey

Mikey, if it was 1960 right now, what would you call a vintage drum? haha.

Hard to say for me, I think 30 years is enough to say vintage, but probably 40 is the magic number, seeing as though in 2000 I would have easily called any musical instrument from the early 70's vintage. Although I'd probably start with the term classic before calling something vintage.

I'd say right now, anything between 1980 and 1990 would be "classic", and pre-1980 could be called vintage. Although the late 70's would be young vintage.

Steve, nice to see you post. How are things with the group?

I think early 80s is getting the vintage label, at least for High End items. Depending on the maker, USA Rogers, early DW, Ludwig, Slingerland, and others. I dont feel so much about the import market, although, I must admit, some high end Pearl and Tama from that era are on the fringe of the vintage market.

The term "vintage" is definitely over-used on things that are "classic" at best. Of course it kills me when I read an advert on CL that claims they have a '70s Sabian cymbal or a '60s Premier kit that has late '80s-99-ish badging.

The term vintage in an advert automatically fires up a warning flare. I read the ad and usually end up laughing my bollocks off!!!

Yeah- 40 years old is about right for the term "vintage" as far as instruments go, but this is an opinion only. The only time I see an exception to the rule is if a particular item was discontinued as it was in the most popular fashion and subsequent models were radically different (i.e. Paiste Colorsound cymbals, et al) from the intro like ten or fifteen years ago. Yeah, some PRS guitars would definitely be seen as vintage even though they have only been produced for 25 years or something like that. But even there, I argue the magic number is 40 years in my opinion.

This is just my OPINION so please, nobody get upset!:

Since I started working with "vintage" drums, my understanding (or use) of that term was simply in line with the listing category eBay uses, which at the time was simply "pre-1980s" (and still is). Please understand that 95% of what I've worked with/on are drums out of the 60s and 70s because that's what I "grew up" with and played (and still play). The last I checked, the 60s and 70s were a long time ago, and since I'm 56 now I have no trouble calling those drums "vintage."

However, for some reason "time keeps on slipping into the future"... i.e., I'm getting older and so are drums! So, at some point, early 80s drums (IMO) have to start being considered "vintage" as well. That's why when I ran across the 1980s Pearl Export Rising Sun set (see thread: http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=26962) I didn't have any second thoughts about posting it on a "vintage" forum.

As a point of comparison, in Kansas you can get an "antique" tag for your auto as soon as it turns 25 years old (unless they've changed the rules in the last few years -- I'm not really into old cars). So, I can easily agree with the 30 year "tag." Even 25...

Rogers Drums....... produced before 1984: Made in USA, quality, highly sought after, very collectable, and all that at multiple levels. Production ceased in mid 1984. Anything in this group is vintage.

Rogers drums.... produced after 1984.... this includes Island Music Import Rogers, most of Brook Mays Rogers (although in fairness, had they not been killed by bankruptsy, God only knows how great it would have been), and everything produced so far by YamahaRogers. These for the most part will never be vintage, even 100 years from now.

Vintage is a relative term at best. Some things do become desirable, collectable, and increase in value. Some should be left to rot.

To me, the word "vintage" denotes a particularly good year or age of production.......as in a fine vintage wine. Sure, the term is used for any year of production of wine, but with drums, it denotes the quality and appeal of drums made before 1980. Now, this is in my view.

By 1980, American and European made drums had lost that which made them so appealing to me, and I think, to many other collectors.

During the 80's and 90's I sold musical instruments for a retail store while I began collecting old "vintage" Camco, Ludwig, Gretsch, etc. drums. The new stuff we were selling just didn't measure up in my opinion, despite the "improvements" in hardware design, etc of the new drums. Some of them compared their products to the "classic" drums of the 40's-60's while claiming superior design and manufacturing processes.

Asian high-end imports, despite their "slickness" will probably never fall into the vintage category in my mind, even 40 years from now---were I to live that long. I sold oodles of Pearl, Tama and Yamaha kits and drums during this time----even owned a few kits for gigging---but would never now cross the street to consider collecting or owning another of these kits or drums for anything other than a quick flip. There's just something missing; an intrinsic or maybe an imagined ingredient.

To me vintage was jazz and swing 40's and earlier. 50's was oldies, 60's rock, 70's disco, 80's new wave and 90's techno etc.... By todays standard I'd call anything 70's and earlier vintage. My car is a 1968 and I'm 53 and everone calls me and the car just old. LOL.