You could be right, but my 'gamble' would be on the fact that those drums represent the first real industry innovation to happen with drums since they stopped tacking the bottom heads! Of course, I'm talking about the MemriLoc system. After those era Rogers came out, EVERY company on the planet started making memory locking stands. There were so many industry innovations with that era, it's like a renaissance!

Yes, the design did have some drawbacks, too, but those were insignificant. I guarantee you all, those drums sound great and, if they are used as working drums, they will endure HEAVY road-use like a champ.

I'm not partial to Arctic White, but, like I said, IF they are perfect, then they look classy. It's when they start getting scratches that they lose their appeal to my eye. But, IF they were mine, I'd know how to treat them so that I coud both play them AND maintain their beauty. Man, they are N-I-C-E!

Y'know, nowadays I don't get stoked about much in the drum industry, but if I had the free cash, I'd plunk it down IMMEDIATELY for the WHOLE works, concert toms, extra toms and Dyna, no questions asked.

I've worked on kits from that era and have seen sloppy workmanship on the rerings, some ratty edges, etc. I wouldn't care. Some squeezed-out glue is no big deal, and I can recut all of the edges myself as needed. But I also guarantee that it is one hell of a kit in one of the classiest Rogers finishes.

JR. I never knew that your taste in drum finishes was plain vanilla (cue the laugh track).

I appreciate and tend to agree with what O Lugs had to say about Memri Loc being the most copied drum hardware development since the tube lug. My personal taste is still for Swivo Matic hardware which was widely copied for its ball and socket design. Hell.....my wife just had her second hip replaced with a titanium Swivo Matic system. She had the first one installed thirteen months ago.

Yeah Howie, some brands of drums just look "right" in certain finishes. Rogers just looks SO classy in New England White.

Let's face it: Rogers set TWO standards for modern hardware design in their lifetime, first with Swivo, then with MemriLoc. Pretty darn good track record, wouldn't you say? I'm not stoked by the heft and rigidity of MemriLoc, mostly with the tom holders, but it was state-of-the-art when it came out and most heavy-duty hardware today is just distant offspring thereof.

I don't believe I could in all good conscious purchase a NIB Rogers 70s kit and then gig with it 'cause it sounded good. That honestly seems a bit counterintuitive. That would be a home kit for me ... a very sweeeeet and lovingly cared for home kit. I, too went down the "should I?" on this one. Dang. If it was a one up Swivo kit 22,13,16, I woulda pulled the trigger.