true story for sure I know i beat many ludwigs almost to the floor and those gull wing spurs on early Hollywood kits were horrible same with gretch tom holders you could beat them off the holder.. just about freeked for joy when i got my first Rogers set in 65 man the swivo stuff was tough..

Early Fullerton are just as good as Dayton no? My Holiday is a mix of the 2- I want a 14 tom so bad, I don't get why they're so coveted and hard to acquire... I've pretty much given up on the 14x14 floor, I'll settle on a 14x10 and tune it low.

here is why they are so coveted total 16x16 ft's made 15,000 total 14x14 Ft's made 1,000 these are just random numbers but you get the idea, try and find a 14x26 inch Rogers bass drum, better yet find a 14x16 floor tom they made them but not many and it was the best floor tom I ever played. Kook get the parts together and make one for yourself put your own badge in it and play the heck out of it...

Yes! Early Fullerton drums are just as good! My bad for not including them!

As to the 14x14 floor tom, there just weren't that many of them, as Rock was taking over and the majority of players opted for 16" floor toms. Also, kits, such as the Headliner, just sounded great with an 8x12 and 16x16 floor tom. I have both Rogers and Slingerland kits with those size toms and love them... not that I wouldn't mind a 14x14 for each, but they're too expensive to track down!

Merry Christmas!

Mark

Great debate! Simply put:

Big Band Jazz....Rogers

Small Group Jazz...Gretsch

Best Looking....Rogers WMP 22/24BD, 13TT, 16FT, 16FT, 5 1/2 SD

Well put!

This has been an excellent thread and I hope more members chime in with their thoughts!

Mark

I play in a trad/modern classic jazz quintet, and a blues/jazz trio. I've used various Slingerland, Gretsch, Rogers and Ludwig's in different configurations with both groups.Inside small clubs, outside at large festivals. You know, they've all been fine. *Tuning* and touch have a lot more to do with it then people like to think. Check out Buddy and Gene playing with trios. Big drums, whatever they had. I'm currently using some '40's Radio Kings most of the time. Crude edges, etc. They sound great, with a little setup. The bass is single tension with almost no bearing edge. It's my favorite drum of the set. Great dynamic range. Go figure. I wish it were just a brand thing. It'd make life much easier for me!

+1

and head selection too.

I switched snare batters from an Ambassador to an Emperor on my son's Supra. :( To my ears, it was terrible. My son hated it too. I tried tuning high, medium and low for both batter and resonant heads. Nothing sounded good.

I am guessing Bonham "had" to use Emperors, because he wouldn't be able to make it through a performance with anything thinner.

The Ambassador is back on the Supra and everyone's happy. Cool Dude

-Tim

Yes. I'd call that part of the tuning equation. You know, I've used an Emp on a deep Supra and liked it, but the only 5" snare I've liked it on was a steel Tama that needed some taming. Pretty much a CS Ambo guy, otherwise....

Way late to an old thread, but I'm "older" too.  
Having started on a 1911 L&L snare (see pics in the "Let's see your 1st drum set" thread, A good friend of mine in JHS had a blue sparkle Rogers Tower snare.  To my young ears, it was the best sounding snare I'd ever heard.  From that moment forward (having drooled over my 64 Rogers catalog since grade school), I had to have a Dynasonic!   My quest became reality at Christmas when I was 14 - so proud I was to finally have one!  But to my dismay in late 1974, I became a victim of CBS Rogers (something non of us were aware of in the day).The shell I got was out of round and did Not have the sound of my friend's Blue sparkle Tower😢.

Fast forward two years into high school.  I saved my pennies and ordered my '77 first generation Memriloc set in "New Mahogany". - solid, yet cheesy looking with that matte finished metal.  Though I tried like crazy to tune/retune ad nauseom, I could never get the toms or Kick to sing". Later after college, I stripped off the "New Mahogany" and sanded down to the bare wood and attempted to help the sound in addition to having a good friend spray the shells with what I hoped would be a translucent candy apple red over the bare wood grain (ala Neal Peart's custom red Tamas).  Disappointingly so, it ended up turning out pinkish with a 'pearlescent' gold hue over the 'pink' - ISH!!!  Icing on the stale cake drum sound- no improvement on sound, tuning range, or sustain!

Fast forward quickly to my studio years, and I finally got to hear that Great Gretsch Sound when another session drummer brought his kit in.  I HAD to have one! So in '84, I finally talked an unsuspecting local music store into trading in the pinkish Big R set & ordered my new custom Red Rosewood lacquer Charlie Roy era Jasper shelled Gretsch kit!!!  Happy Boy!!'🙃  Collected and played vintage Gretsch, Ludwig, and Radio Kings for most of my professional life - even bought Peavey radial pro 1000s😱.  
 
Fast forward to last year (Yes - it really took me that long!) - I finally purchased a blue sparkle (glass glitter- which it was NEVER called until Cherrie  Willoughby deemed it so) '65 Powertone Jasper shell snare  to commemorate my Jr. High buddy's Tower snare -  I WAS HOOKED!  There it was!!! The sound and tuning range was back!!
 So good it was that I didn't stop there.  I decided to seek and purchase a '65 Covington blue sparkle Jasper shell top hat  set, along  with a Mardi Gras beaver tail Jasper shell headliner set   
Open tuning on all drums, I have NEVER had so much fun in my 61 years  of playing drums!! (I'm 64 coming 'round to 65) It's now FINALLY fun  - and is a PLEASURE to play drums again!!  The 20" open tuned kick is HEAVEN.   What would we have done without Jasper, Indiana - the real secret sauce behind the SOUND!!!!!

🤪🙃😉