Can't think of a better reason, brother !!......Cool1

Kev

For me I started playing in the 60's. Nothing big time just high school jazz ensemble and garage bands playing school dances and partys. Fun times. By 1979 I was married, divorced and found myself single dad raising my 1 yr old son. To that point I had held on to my Slingerland kit moving it from place to place and sold them in the early 80's. Flash forward some 30 years I remarried, had 3 more children so 4 all together. All the kids play something the oldest boy, sax, drums and guitar. Other 2 boys sax, trumpet in school and, bass, drums, keyboards and guitar. And our daughter the drums. I'd play the drums every so often but I'm very rusty....like old tin man rusty. One night I started to google info on old Rogers and Slingerland drums dreaming about days n drums past and ran into this site. Started reading the forum and drooling over all the beautiful kits and snares in the gallery. I decided to join the forum and was hooked once again on vintage drums. I inquired on a few kits here and there but most were out of my reach $$$ wise. Back in Jan I found my Slingerland kit here, in my price range *cheap* and haven't looked back. Buying things as I can afford to. I practice a few hours a day now and I'm slowly getting back into it. I have cheap cymbals and stands but it's been so much fun playing again. Last week I finished getting the drums patched up back together. So in my case this forum was HUGE getting me back into the drums again.

Glenn.

I guess for me, it was always there in the background. My dad played a little, but never had a kit. He used to talk about playing a black Ludwig kit that he kept for a friend when he went into the Army...this would have been early 70s. I always wanted to do everything my dad did, so I wanted to play drums and I wanted an old black Ludwig kit.

The first drums I was really exposed to belonged to a high school friend of mine (I'm not vintage, graduated in 1999...I know, to some of you I'm still a baby crawl2). Anyway, he picked up drumming from his dad and inherited a Slingerland kit and a Ludwig kit when his dad passed away. I heard him play the Slingerlands all the time, so I guess that sound soaked into my brain...along with other things, but that's all behind me now, thank God. I got to play both kits a little bit, but I wasn't really that into drums at the time...my time and money went into a 1966 Plymouth Sport Fury...and the other things I alluded to above.

Anyway, some high school friends knew I played a little and wanted to start a garage band after we graduated. I played one of the guy's little brother's old Tama Swingstar kit until I could afford an old Pearl Export kit. So, at that time, I thought old meant "not so good." I didn't know that the kits my friend had were "old," but knew they were good. As I learned to play, I was bitten by the drum bug and lusted after several kits, and eventually got a DW kit.

It was just within the past year that I started paying attention to vintage kits after my church got a Gretsch Catalina Jazz kit. I like it a lot and got to thinking I could probably find an older one in the same sizes for nearly the same money and they'd probably sound even better. Well, as you know, I was WAY wrong about getting a vintage Gretsch in the $600 range, especially in those sizes. Anyway, just looking at vintage kits on feeBay and other places made me even more interested in getting one. I finally got one in December. I can now say that I've got the vintage bug...but I've still got the modern bug too. That being said, there are more vintage kits on my list than modern ones. If I could only have a big enough room and enough money, I'd have the modern corner and the rest would probably be vintage.

I've always liked vintage anything. I grew up around old cars and antiques so I guess it's just in my blood. Still play my first and only new ('79 Slingerland, just posted a pic) kit I've ever owned. Never had the money keep buying the newest stuff. A few years ago my nieghbor gave me a no name mij kit that his kids messed around on. I like the history as much as the beauty of old drums (and anything else).

I started playing at age 11 6th grade. Played the school bands did the garage band thing. Met a beautiful woman got married. The jam sessions stopped, two beautiful girls were born. Twelve years later, built a house, sold the drums, did not need them anymore. One day my little brother needed money so I bought his Rocker 2 Ludwigs for 200.00. About a year ago I thought it would be fun to re-do the finish but I did not want to do it if the drums were collectable. Thats when I came here seeking advice on whether or not to refinish the drums. The advice was, go ahead and do it, Rockers are not cool. I chose to keep them as is and went on to buy two bass drums, 8,10,12,13,14,15,16,18 toms all Rockers ( ones with maple shells) off e-bay and built the monster drumset I never had as kid. Covered them all with maple veneer. The project went quick and I was hungry for another project. So started looking at c/l for more drums to cover with veneer. Soon ran into a Ludwig 1967 club date in SBP and I think that is when the bug for vintage drums bit me. Allthough I still want to do some custom finishing on drums I have become much more interested in the cool old vintage wraps. Joining this forum was the best thing I could have done. I am so impressed with the knowledge that is shared to everyone. This is a great bunch of guys and once again I would like to say,,,,

Thank you!!!

Jeff C

Oh and here is a shot of the monster Rockers, funny thing is now that I have them I kinda like the four and five peice kits better. go figure.

My first kit was a Dixie, stencil kit. I got it new from the Kent factory retail outlet "warehouse" which was in walking distance from my house, Christmas of '69. A few years later I traded it in for a Kent kit. I played the crap out of that Kent but eventually sold it and bought a Pearl wood fiberglass kit. I began missing my kent kit immediately. In the 90's I sold the Pearl kit and bought a Yamaha, and played Yammies from then on. Fast forward to 2004 I walked in to a local music store and spotted a set of Kents almost identical to my old kit. I picked it up for 175 and restored it and the rest is History.

Yep, that's pre Luddy. Have fun with it, they really are great pedals. There are a couple of spots to find the instructions on how to adjust the springs. Here's one that popped up:

http://www.billyrhythm.com/drums/ghost/images/earlyghostinstructions.gif

The vintage drum bug hit me a few years ago, completely by accident.

I was looking for a small kit for one-nighters, and the owner of a local music store said he had used kit that just came in. 3 drums, all the shiny parts were green and badges said "Ludwig", but they weren't like any Ludwig badges I'd ever seen. I asked him how much he wanted, and he said "$250.00". I offered him $200 and took them home.

I started doing some research and found this site. Turned out my kit is a 1959 Trans-badge Ludwig Downbeat in Oyster Blue Pearl w/nickle hardware! Pretty much everything was there so I buffed up all of the metal parts, used Novus on the shells and put coated ambassadors on the toms. Every time I play this kit, I smile... I just can't help it, they sound so damn good!

reading through this great thread brought some other points as to why I'm probably drawn to Vintage gear.

To me the older stuff has a soul inherent in being played by numerous others through their life, each piece has its own story and its a nice feeling to add my own chapter and try to decipher the previous ones.

I grew up with an Antiquing family, I cant remember how many flea markets, antique malls, etc I was drug through as a kid but it stuck as our home is filled with antique furniture, lamps, etc.

My grandfather was a Drummer in the USCG Signal Corp. Band in WW2. I always admired and respected him so thats a BIG part of why I chose drums. He and I played together once on my first kit (pearl fiberglass) and I will never forget it.

Fishwaltz, already read through that site front to back! Really excited to add this pedal to my collection.

I used to play primarily bass, with a little guitar thrown in, so I spent a fair amount of time hanging around guitar stores being a general nuisance. One of the stores I frequented had a manager who was cool with me, and cut me a fair amount of deals since I wasted all my money there.

One day they had a BDP Royce/Reuther 12"-16"-20" plus the original junk cymbals, a stack of other crap stands, and a Ludwig hat stand (an 1124, when I knew enough to check) for $175, I think. I thought "Why not?, I'll give drumming a try!" And, for better or worse, I've turned out to be a less terrible drummer than I ever was bassist or guitarist.

In the course of fixing it up I spent a fair amount of time annoying the owner of a small local vintage drum shop, specializing in 60's Ludwigs. I think he liked it when I picked up a beat BDP JazzFest off eBay and cleaned it up real nice, same as I learned from buying nothing but junk guitars. When I bought a thrashed 13"-16"-20" SSB kit from him, I think he realized I was never going to go away, so he might as well pay me. I restored drums full time for the next 3 years, and fell in love with the look, sound and smell of them.

I'd do that job again in a heartbeat.