Ya, we seem to be going through similar times right now.

I have a set of Big R's in 24" 13" 14" 18" with additional orphan 16".

The hardware is beyond bad. Terrible, awful, rubbish. That Tom system kills the Toms. Those Bass drum pipes are a joke. What where they thinking??

HOWEVER! The sound from them is just tremendous! Chuck the Rack Tom on a good snare stand, clamp those BD pipes down (I use Velcro stops) and I have got the ultimate studio kit for Rock and Funk. Yep in the studio the temperment of those shells for me is perfection.

I have just done an album session. I took the Rogers big R 24 14 18 as my main workhorse. Then a Gretsch RB 13 16 22 for mid range and a Luddy Downbeat 12 14 20 for the Jazzy stuff. Together with my 6.5 Black Beauty, RadioKing, Luddy 400 and a Hayman Snare I was set. The Rogers took most of the work through the week and the guy's I worked with loved it, no really loved it! Consider that kit only cost £400, I'm so so chuffed.

Any players out there should consider a kit of these, particularly in the bigger sizes, I reckon thats what these drums are best at. The ultimate vintage drum "Wolf in Sheep's clothing" if you will.

Are all Big R kits keller shells? How do I identify what's an XP8 and what's not?

Thanks!

I never owned or played a Rogers kit but I now own two Dyna-Sonic snares (one COB and the other is wood).

Back in the late 1970s I had to replace my original Camco BD pedal after it "disappeared" at the end of a gig. I bought a Rogers Supreme pedal but never liked it. It was clunky and not very responsive. I used it for a few years and then replaced it with an ASBA Caroline. I also had a couple of top model Rogers cymbal stands (one of them was a boom with that funky blue counterweight) from the same era which were ok but not very rigid compared to some of my other stands (Gretsch, Slingerland, Pearl, etc.).

Trout studio, I am using 2 little condenser overheads on light boom stands and a kick mic now on a tiny tripod and a clip on snare mic holder for my 57. Then my vocal mic and stand. I carry the 3 boom stands in one of those on stage stand bags with my rug, and the other 2 little holders and mics in my little trap case. I travel as light as possible these days but still want a nice, big, full sound.

We were using the fairly new Mackie 16 channel wifi board and we all have IPads running Mackie Master Fader software. I set up all my own stuff. Takes me maybe 30 minutes, not including load in and out. So I am using 5 channels total.

Some places only require a kick mic and my vocal mic picks up enough, but 95% of our gigs were outside, so I used the 4 mic drum setup. Sorry to get off topic a little but the Rogers kick drum sounds great mic'ed up as do the toms. That little extra sustain the drums give goes a long way in a outside venue.

All Big R kits used shells from Keller. From 1975-79 the shells were 5-ply with rings, speckled paint inside = the same specs as the last of the script badge drums which had just been discontinued. In 1979, the XP8 drums were intro'd. They used the same badges, hardware, most finishes; the shells were 8-ply, no rings inside, no paint inside; they are natural maple inside.

Thanks much, Dan!

More information found on Big R's:

Last Saturday was my birthday, the big 60! (YAY) and my wife through a nice party, inviting close friends and family... Dana Bentley and his wife were seated directly across from us, so the gals talked of gal-ish stuff, while Dana and I talked, well drums, among a few other things.

One of the things I brought up was this thread, and the points you fine folks have mentioned. He told me he had a couple of fine, pristine examples in the shop, and to wander down to the shop today to have a look. First, both the kits are sold or involved in some trade or something, so this isn't an advertisement, just information.

The first kit he showed me was a very minty sunburst or tobacco fade (not sure what Rogers called it) with five plys and rings... and clear finished interiors. No speckled paint. WOW, did those sound nice. Dana figures, and I assume as well that it's early in the production runs. Maybe 1975? The other was a just as minty Blue (Pacific Blue, he may have said) with five plys, rings and the speckled interior. It sounded just as sweet.

He also had a few orphans, one floor tom I noticed (white) was the 8 ply. I'm not sure what it sounds like, we didn't 'thump' it.

He also told me that many do a rims mount on the rack toms that really opens up the drum and makes it sound even better than original.

One other thing he mentioned was the wrap(s) were a pain to remove, and the one he'd done years ago was especially nasty as when it came off it left a bunch of glue on the shells, and the glue was a mess.

Anyway, those really are sweet drums! Yeah, the hardware is clunky, but wow... they sound fantastic!

So I have missed out on that set of tobacco sunburst? Dana showed them to me early this year...... I knew about them. That is an absolutely lovely set.

Yeah, I guess you did miss 'em. Although he mentioned who it was that he was trading / selling / whatever to, I didn't pay much attention as I was mesmerized by the kit! Those ARE one fine set of Big R's! They look like the day they left the showroom, don't they.

Are you out here in California? For some reason I was thinking you were back east or in the mid west.