In the early mid 70's it became hip to play concert/single headed toms,so guys that had older and double headed kits took the bottom rims off,and since they did not stay with the kit they got misplaced/lost,a few but not as many thank God also took the bottom lugs off, and some filled the holes and painted the insides of the drums too.

It was a pretty horrible time for drummers IMO. Recording engineers now had 24 and 48 track record machines and they craved complete isolation on their tracks. Unfortunately, the outboard electronics of the day had not quite caught up to that idea. So, bottom heads came off, mics went inside from underneath and all manner of flotsam and jetsam were taped on to the batter heads creating the musical equivalent of a cardboard box. Snare drums were detuned and drummers wallets were unceremoniously taped to the batter head. The resonant heads of kick drums were removed and the interior of the shells were filled with enough sleeping material to start your own hotel chain. Seems like the west coast of the US was the worst offender. It is also part of the reason that drummers and others began to view the drum sounds that the English were achieving with such favor; because they sounded like real drums primarily because English engineers were more concerned with capturing the drum and the room sound.

Not to say that concert toms are all bad. Bermuda has pointed that out quite well with his new website. And who didn't like the non-linear reverb sound of Phil Collin's toms? The problem in the US in the 70's was an extremely dead drum sound on many recordings and many drummers opting to imitate that sound live by doing away with their bottom heads. They muted the heck out of remaining batter head making them extremely easy to tune as tuning hardly mattered at that point. The subsequent rims and hardware were lost right along with the quality of the bottom bearing edge and any sense of a musical sounding instrument.

....but then Stewart Copeland came along....

OK I'll step off my soapbox now.

Awesome replies guys ;)

thanks alot!

Now let's just forget about that period... :p

altough i still like to use my wallet on my snare while recording!:D

greets

Dennis

Tnsquint said it perfectly - nice response btw. It was a time when a lot of drummers wanted to make thier sets sound like something they weren't. I removed heads, rims, lugs, put a piece of cloth under the batter head, put tape on my snare and cymbals, etc all in attempts to make a nice full, warm jazz kit sound like I was a modern rock drummer. I was a kid, didn't know better and didn't care. Now I cringe at the amount of money I've spent on missing lugs, rods, and rims. Not to mention how many sets I've passed on due to the bottom bearing edges looking more like a gravel road than a bearing edge.