The Motown recording kit was a mixture of Rogers, Gretsch, and Ludwig drums. It was more to do with the recording techniques (two / three mic's in early days) and the drummers (all jazzers) than the drums.

I personally think that Gretsch are the best made drums out there. They also always seem to love a mic, no matter what pitch or tone i have them tuned to. I've seen bad uneven bearing edges on loads of sixties ludwigs, they were being turned out in such high quantities back then.

There will be many disagreements to this im sure, and before anyone says it i'm purely talking about the shells, not the mounting hardware ;).