Usually in the studio I'll have a few vintage drums for sure - the sound and mojo cannot be beat.

Can't say I feel 100% safe using them in the crummier bars and venues but if you want to play them you might as well suck it up and risk it. Sound is sound and with the vintage kits the sound is unmatched. We love to collect them but they are instruments too. What bothers me is when you have dying parts that are on their last gig DURING your gig.

Lucky - You better install a heater, huh?

You know, the only parts of mine that have ever died during a gig were my modern DW and Pearl bass pedals. My vintage drums have never failed me on stage!

Me and my Slingerlands from this past Sat. night in a biker bar...

never had an issue.

To me, the best part of playing in ****ty bars for very little money is getting to take out gear that I enjoy playing.

These drums were meant to be hit hard with a stick...

I wouldn't use thin Ks or some of my Leedy snares with presto strainers as they're fragile...but a 60s or 70s set can really handle anything.

Great pic! That's a lovely set. And you look like you're enjoying it.

Your comment about the durability of 60s and 70s kits raises a good point: if we're not going to take our vintage gear out, what will we take? It wouldn't make sense to gig a $3,000 DW or Ayotte kit just to preserve a $1,500 Super Classic. I suppose the options are:

1) Vintage kit

2) Modern pro kit (same problem: too valuable to risk)

3) Modern semi-pro kit (e.g. PDP, Catalina)

4) Crummy modern MIT kit (e.g. CB, Westbury: no, no, no)

5) Reworked MIJ kit

Options 1, 3 and 5 look ok to me. I've played PDP maple and Catalina maple drums, and I think they're both excellent, though they lack that vintage vibe. I'm curious about jonnistix's reworked MIJ kits: they have the vintage look and feel, and I'm intrigued by the idea that a good hand on the bearing edges can bring a lauan kit up to scratch.

And then there's Option 6: vintage player's kit. Vintage look and sound without the risk to a pristine historical instrument. To me, it's the best of all possible worlds for gigging.

I only have one kit and it happens to be "vintage" (I suppose). I dragged it all over kingdom come and never thought about not using it. I loved the great sound and couldn't imagine using something else. Too many great compliments on their sound to consider using something expendable (sound is not expendable). BTW, never had cases, but they are currently encased in some dust. Oops.

Those walnuts are truly beautiful drums! Do my rattled nerves a favour, though, and get them some cases (or at least gig bags?) before you take them out again! :) I'd hate to see anything happen to them in transit.

Thanks S2. I don't currently gig with them anymore(got burned out from two nights, every weekend). Maybe I'll return to the stage in the future - nothing like making people dance. However, I do need to get some protection. Oh, the picture really makes them look much better, but they still are sweet. Thanks again.

Actually a really good question, glad you asked, I sometimes wonder the same thing.

I have several kits, I like to consider them all vintage, and I have gigged with all of them. I suppose if I had a really valuable (8-10,000$) kit I might be really discriminating about where I played it, but drums were made to be played, so I play everything I buy.

I try to bring the right kit for the job, for example I use my '69 ludwig standards for jazz gigs.. I play in several bands and various types of venues, and have done so for over 30 years, and the only damage to drums I've had was when overly helpful people try to carry your stuff and drop it. Or when I myself have bumped my snare into a tom or fl.tom into a bass lug.

In other words, GIG WITH THEM, but be careful!

Yes, I gig my old drums as soon there is chance.

Hey, its drums we are talking aboutHmmmm

Despite what some of you think, and despite what I may have suggested in other threads, my kits are not vintage kits, they are just kits I've had a long time; and, in the case of the Rogers, gigged from new in '73. The Centennial Gretsch didn't get gigged in anger during its first 15 years until a friend told me to start playing it and I began on the eve of the new millenium. The Rogers has had absolutely everything thrown at it as it's gigged around the world, including the bass drum falling out of a fibre case (roadies!!!) and bouncing down a cast iron fire escape, plus being blown out onto the road by a gust of wind and hit by a car (Protection Racket padded cover) which resulted in a broken rim (repaired the next morning). I've worn a lot of the gold off some of the Gretsch rims - so what! They can be re-plated. It's the same with my Jaguar X300, new from '95, it gets driven all over and left out in the rain and snow, often surrounded by women with epileptic shopping trolleys; who cares if it gets broken - fix it! I do, however, have some wine glasses from the 1780s that I inherited from my pub owning ancestors... they are in a glass case in my dining room and never get used. If they get broken, they can't be fixed: so it's horses for courses really.