"I AM VINTAGE" I am 63, still giging twice a month or so. I'm a little slower now but 10 times smarter about timing and presence as I used to be. I love my Slingerlands, 70s' vintage. I only have the one set so it goes where I go. My cymbals are vintage Z,s and Paiste's. I haven't heard many sets that sound better especially when mic'd up. I don't play for a living anymore only for the love of it, and thats the way it should be. I play with a younger bunch and they tell me dying is not an option, the band won't allow it. I have had 3 Slingerland sets (30's-70's) one Ludwig (64 set) ( I never liked much) and a 60's Gretch set. (not bad but a little tinnie).

The Band

Looks like I'm kinda in the middle somewhere at 53 years. I started playing on marching tenor at age 13 for a local competitive Drum Corps. I then played on the snare line for seven years until I aged out at 21. I started playing kit six years ago and haven't looked back, collecting vintage marching snares and kits. Currently playing on the snare line for an Alumni Corps and play with an excellent country/folk trio on the week-ends. What a blast!

Restoring vintage drums is a great past-time. So far I have restored about 10 Supraphonics, a 1936 Ludwig Silver Anniversary, found and restored a Rogers Cleveland WMP Dynasonic, a 1968 Premier D303 kit, a 1963 Ludwig BDP kit, A gorgeous 1966 Club Date in blue sparkle and other snares and kits that have appeared on this site.

Its good to be in the company of ardent, passionate folks who love music and the great equipment made to create it!

Cheers!

-kellyj

I'm 64 ...sounds like a Beatle song!!! I own 3 sets, 1977 Rogers Londoner 9, 1972 Pearl President, and my player set, a 1995 Pearl Session/Masters. I play out the Rogers once in a while...always get attention from the peanut gallery about them. I've been gigging for 45 years...I see no end in sight.

It's great to see and hear of drummers of all ages collecting, playing, and respecting drums made in the past by some of the great drum makers and some not so great. It's very interesting to hear stories of our adventures into the world of drum playing and collecting. I will have been playing 42 years this summer. I started in the summer of '69, sounds like a song too! I always wanted the newest latest drums and as they changed I traded in or up.

About 5 years ago I got interested in drums from my past and began collecting. Like someone else said, I only buy what I play. I have 23 snares, down from 27, (27 is just too many:D) and 6 kits, 3 old ones, Ludwig, Kent, and Ludwig Vistalite and I'd love to add a Vintage Gretsch set.

I do wish I had held on to some of the kits which I got rid of, but as I think George Carlin once said "You can't have everything, where would you put it?" or was that Steven Wright?

I got really interested in drums when I was 13.Most kids my age at that time(1978)who were into drums were inspired by songs performed by KISS(Peter Criss) & Led Zeppelin(John Bonham),but for me it was the song by Player 'BABY COME BACK' (nobody laughs now).The 16th notes on the hi hat still floors me to this day.

At 46 Im a vintage drummer.As far as equipment I'm 2/3 of the way there.My main kit is a Yamaha Maple Custom but all my snares are vintage Ludwigs from the 1960s/70s. I also have about 40 Zildjians ranging from the 1930s-1980s.Even though I like to expeirment with different vintage sounds of my collection my main setup consist of all Zildjian K Customs.

OH BY THE WAY! after 30+ years of drumming this VINTAGE drummer FINALLY found his PERFECT sounding set of hi hats last month(Zildjian 14" K Custom top/A Mastersound bottom)

For years, all I had were my old 64 Slingerlands. I finally started collecting

60's era sets around 1990 and had several, most of which were sold, because I realized I needed contemporary drums for the gigs I was doing. I went through a set of Pearl MLX's, two sets of Tama Starclassics, and finally, now play DW exclusively (almost exclusively. I use my little 60's Crest stencil set for tight-space gigs).

Once I get my Slingerlands restored, I will start gigging with them again on rare occasions, as I want to pass them down to my kids.

I guess I started collecting in that 40-something age group.

At 71, I think I am winning this contest. Next week our band is opening a sold out show for Buddy Guy. Which drums should I take? Rogers Daytons or Tempus Carbon Fiber?

I love the physics of vintage drums;

They were fashioned into spheres from natural wood. The sphere is the dominant shape of the entire universe; galaxies, stars, planets and moons natrually evolve into spheres through gravitational forces. The wonderful sounds you hear from vintage drums come first from the spherical shape allowing sound waves to travel around in the sphere colliding off the super dry shells that have aged in the their spheroidal shape over the decades. Thin mahogany or maple shells bounce the low frequency waves best which then resonate off the bottom drum head producing low, warm tones, so pleasing to the ear...

someone pass me the ... Cool Dude

-kellyj

Sounds like you lived through the 60's!

Actually, they are shaped into a cylinder. A sphere is the points equdistant from the central single point. The cylinder is the points equidistant from a single line segment. While the sphere has cool and obviously deep mojo for the unique individual, it is the drum and drummer that is represented by the cylinder. The line segment is made up of a finite number of points, i.e. a group. The drum surrounds this group with a very precise and exacting distance. There is perfection and a lack of variance to this measurement.

You could also visualize the cylinder as a group of parallel lines all surrounding the central line segment. These parallel lines are all flowing the same direction and have the same measured values. They are all identical and unwavering when compared to the central group of points that make up the line segment.

The drum and the drummer is not an individual point surrounded by the infinite. It is instead that which surrounds and identifies the group of points.

That is a drum. That is a drummer.