Score of the month

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:48 pm

So some of you may remember I sent my vintage Rogers drum kit in to get the edges re-cut and to have the wraps removed, much to the disappointment of many vintage drum purists here. Well, I am now paying for my indiscretion, as the guy who's working on them is taking his sweet time. We originally agreed on a 2 week turnaround and now it's been over a month and I'm still waiting. So what's that got to do with a score of the month?

Well, my band still needs to practice, so i decided to post an ad on Craigslist to trade my rarely-used Roland V-Compact electronic kit for an acoustic kit. I got a few replies, one which never got back to me, another with a brand new Pearl Export and then another guy who said he had a rare Rogers kit that I had to see to believe. He claimed that only 3 were made in these sizes. I was skeptical.

So a few days later, I get some photos of the kit and it's pretty awesome. Somehow the guy agrees to give me $325 cash and the Rogers kit for my Roland kit. Schwing!

I go to meet the guy and he has a bunch of gear lying around from when he used to tour with a local R&B act. The guy is super nice and is telling me about the kit, when I see a Ludwig Acrolite snare sitting next to it. I ask if he wants to sell the snare, because I really despise my Tama Rockstar snare and I used to have an Acrolite that I loved. He says, "Sure, make me an offer!" So I say, knowing I've seen Acrolites going for above and below $100, "$100?" And he agrees. I get it home and realize it's a gold badge and date stamped 1968 and has the original resonant head on it. Double schwing. Then he threw in a free snare stand. Awesome guy.

Then I research my new Rogers kit and find that it's circa 1983 and got all 8-ply Maple shells, and the oversized drums are not the same sizes as listed in their catalog from 1983. In fact, I don't even see a 24x18 kick in there. The sizes are 24x18 kick, 13x13 rack, 14x14 rack and 16x16 floor. Add to that it's a silver wrap, and I'm stoked. A lot.

The kit needs a little work, as the wraps are peeling off at the seams a little on the rack toms, and it needs new heads, but I promise not to deface this one in any way. I just need to figure out how to position the ginormous rack tom so I can hit it without having to stand up. These will be great for my loud noise rock band.

Anyhow, link to photos below. Had to share my lucky score, which I seem to have about once a year.

Photos are here.

Kilroy · Post by **Kilroy** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:51 pm

looksa like an awesomwe scorea dude. conrgrats

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:03 am

largest rack toms of life my friend. looks beautiful though!

mingus2112 · Post by **mingus2112** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:10 am

i've got a similar story. . .except i was never trading anything and i didn't end up with cool drums. . .

Seriously though. . .i know a guy who used to play this early '80s slingerland back when we hung out (10 years ago) with HUGE toms like that. His kit, though. . .had 4 of them. LOL

Great score though!

-James

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:40 am

Thanks guys. I am pretty intimidated by these toms... honestly. They are monsters. Going to buy new heads this weekend and should be able to get them to really sing. The original rogers reso heads on the rack toms sound like paper. Some nice G1s with G2s on top should smooth them out a bit.

I've decided I may try to make the second rack tom into a second floor tom... going to pick up a multi-clamp so i can hook it onto the cymbal stand. My psuedo-bonham kit. Now if only I could play like Bonham.

-Bret

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:29 pm

Don't be afraid to try coated heads. That may tame those beasts a little bit. I'm a fan of the G2 coated and I used them for a long time, but I use the coated Aquarian Doulble Thins now with Evans Resonance bottoms. I don't have ginormous drums, but they work nice.

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:42 pm

kentothink wrote:Don't be afraid to try coated heads. That may tame those beasts a little bit. I'm a fan of the G2 coated and I used them for a long time, but I use the coated Aquarian Doulble Thins now with Evans Resonance bottoms. I don't have ginormous drums, but they work nice.

I put coated heads on my other rogers kit and it seemed to dull the toms too much... then again, I wasn't dealing with toms of gigantic proportions. It's hard to drop so much money on heads not know what will work best for these things. Thanks for the advice!

-Bret

ckeene · Post by **ckeene** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:45 pm

who's recutting your edges? I have a kit that needs to be recut.

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:55 pm

ckeene wrote:who's recutting your edges? I have a kit that needs to be recut.

Sent you a PM.

fromthecurve · Post by **fromthecurve** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:42 pm

Those things are awesome. I like how the tom post is about 4 feet long!

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:34 pm

fromthecurve wrote:Those things are awesome. I like how the tom post is about 4 feet long!

Yeah, it's insane! I'm thinking about trying to use some clamps to mount the rack toms to cymbal stands instead... we'll see. I have a lot of messing around to do with the setup.

rushofblood · Post by **rushofblood** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:38 am

man those are huge, I'd turn them all into floor toms haha. then again I'm just into floor toms.

Coco · Post by **Coco** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:00 am

Good score. I like the Rogers Big *R* kits. All I would do is buy a smaller rack tom off ebay, if you don't like the big ones you have, get the guy that is doing the bearing edges on your other kit to wrap your smaller ebay tom in silver and your golden. I wouldn't cut those big ones down, but you could do that as well.

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