I've been a lurker for a few weeks and decided to jump into the fire!
Ok, so I am a "dabbling" drummer; I can play, I love to play, but I'm not a trained "drummer" by any stretch. I really just need to play for completion! I multitrack all my own compositions and therefore need a decent kit to do so.
Anyway, a little history: I learned how to play drums on my friends old vintage Ludwig kit back in the early 90s. Playing came very natural to me, although I am a lefty so I had to Phil Collins my way through... At the time, even though we were sort-of playing on a gold sparkle vintage kit, we thought the kit was a total piece of sh*t. It only had the bass drum and tom tom, no mounting hardware, some lousy snare drum that we painted red (don't even ask) and a dented up old crash cymbal that sounded like sheet metal. We were teenagers and had no appreciation! That, and the set was given to him by his uncle or something so it was a freebie. We ended up replacing the Ludwig a year or so later with a bottom-rung CB Percussion kit. To us, it was a complete kit so it was better...The Band
FF - I bought a cheap, probably MIJ kit in the late 90s to play with a band at the time, and it wasn't horrible, but it was just a standard junk store kit complete with a Sabian B8 cymbal pack (I still have the ride). I finally got sick of using garbage and dropped about 9 bills on a Yamaha Stage Custom Advantage in 2002, which at the time came with the 8" tom making the kit a 6pc. I've slowly upgraded my hardware and cymbals but for the amount of playing I do, it wasn't worth having all the best stuff. I've recorded the kit numerous times and it sounded pretty good, even in my basement. But as I got through my 20's into my 30's, I began to appreciate vintage equipment and the quality most of it had. Everything from guitars, to keyboards and synths, I started going back in time and really appreciating what I felt was a better sound and quality instrument. I didn't jump on the bandwagon at all; I then realized there was a huge resurgence of retro/vintage gear around the same time I was getting into it.
So now, I'm looking for a small, vintage kit. I recently bought a house and am building a studio in the basement. I love the sound of an old Ludwig or Slingerland kit, but I don't have the cash to drop on these at the moment with all the inflation and the market for vintage gear. So I'm looking for recommendations on what might suit me for relatively cheap, that I would enjoy. I'd even be willing to dump my stage custom for the right kit, but I have learned the hard way too many times after selling off gear I regret now. I particularly like the dry sounds of the 60s and late 70s.
Sorry for the long first post; if you read this far, I appreciate it. Look forward to being part of the vintage drum community!
Mike
