I believe it was written by RogerSling...

Cheers

40 years ago was 1976. Didn't Drum Workshop start around then as a small store and/or teaching studio? I suppose the earliest pedals could have been around that time but I don't remember them making any drums prior to the mid 80's. I seem to recall a canister throne was another early product. When did Camco close down? The earliest DW pedals would have to be from after whenever that was.

don started with a drum school in the early 70's were john was a student. a old catalog with a time line states in 78 the focus shifted to manufacturing and sales.

i believe the first product was a canister throne then later the 5000 pedal after buying some camco tooling.

also, they started making their own shells in 1997 and everything before that was keller shells. when i see these old drums i buy to flip. i always have people asking for period add on drums.

Drum Throne 1974; Pedal 1977; Drums 1979

Hey drummerfish, who makes this?

Stedi, a note on your DW brass snare in case you're not aware:

DW used GonBops timbale shells for their early snares.

Cool article. You cannot help loving that light blue finish Camco used in that era.

The strainer on that DW brass snare definitely looks like a Camco unit, not to mention the obvious lug design.

When do you suppose kits in smaller sizes began to appear from DW?

1990 is when you could walk into a DW dealer and buy a set off the floor, so I guess you could get one then although they were not in the catalog. Colin Bailey had the first 20/14/12 set I ever saw and it was an early 80's version. Had a Japanese rail mount with a TAMA L-arm mount holder.

Jason Bonham is probably one of the first handful of DW drum kit endorsees, as i'd seen footage of him in the video "Wait For You" from his band "Bonham", which was released in '89. If i'm not mistaken, he was already using DW drums when recording with Jimmy Page for the album "Outrider" in '88, and even earlier with Virginia Wolf..

On the Wiki page for DW drums, it states that Tommy Lee was apparently the first DW Drum kit endorsee, but not quite sure if that's accurate..

Early DW stools from the 70's are quite collectable and hard to find.

As far as DW kits being vintage, maybe not yet, but they sure do produce some beautiful stuff today. I don't see 90's lots being high dollar either. They were prettuch seat of the pants back then.

I absolutely love my Twisted Rainbow kit. Today's DW quality is 2nd to none IMO. They sound just as good too, I consistently receive compliments on them.

When it comes to DW, I've met two types of drummers, you either love them or hate them. The haters mostly think they are overpriced, just my opinion.