If properly done,and it appears to be a factory job, does it really matter? Many drums were sent as virgins to music stores or drum shops that would customize the drums to the store's or the consumer's preferences. Ringo's Ludwigs with a Rogers Swivomatic tom holder???
Thanks leedybdp, I feel much better now.
I foolishly stripped the red sparkle wrap from my early 70's Stewarts. Never did anything else. I couldn't.
B
We've all done it. Temptation to "improve" things is all too great and the regret after most mods is irreversible, thus the reason why unaltered vintage EVERYTHING is quite valuable.
It really dont matter how properly an alteration on a vintage drum is done to a serious collector, unless of course if there were no extra holes drilled and the original pieces came with the kit. There was a thread on this a while back. It was all about values of rewraped drums etc........THese guys on here can spot a unoriginal part on a drum from the worst and smallest of pics..
Drum hardware has come a long way since the 60's. A lot of that old hardware got loose and turned and fell etc....... I have a 60 luddy kit someone installed pearl spurs in place of the swing out spurs. The pearl spurs are way better, but ruined the originality of that kit.
Drum hardware has come a long way since the 60's. A lot of that old hardware got loose and turned and fell etc....... I have a 60 luddy kit someone installed pearl spurs in place of the swing out spurs. The pearl spurs are way better, but ruined the originality of that kit.
All of these things make a drum kit a "player" kit. This is just like what happens to vintage guitars that actually got played- tuners would explode, tail pieces would be rendered unusable, finishes would become butt-ugly from wear as well as the eternal cloud of tobacco smoke in bars and you want a nice-looking guitar to play onstage. And the old hardware from the '50s and '60s was crap for the most part, whether we talk about drums or guitars. I say this unapologetically.
Collector grade ANYTHING usually was loved but not played all that much. That's one reason why it's worth tons.
My first set was a BDP RK kit with 26" BD......
At the time (circa 1968), it was cool to have the heads off your drums,and have them painted some cool color inside.....black/red/orange.whatever.......
I took India ink,and did the whole inside of the BD...........
At least it wasn't thick house paint!
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I remember in around 1970's,I bought a bunch of stray drums from a friends older brother..........
There was a Rogers 6 lug snare in Duco,and I remember making it into a mounted tom to put on my MIJ BD........so,extra holes.
I had a double bass set of all sorts of brands cobbled together...........
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Lastly,after seeing Spirit in concert,I had to have a HUGE BD on stands on each side of my kit...so,somehow,I found 2 Ludwig vintage single tension BD's,and I found some big metal racks out in back of a grocery store.....
My dad welded some short metal rods (2"-3" long) on each side of the stands to go inside the drums,so I had to drill 2 holes in each BD to mount them........
So,if anyone sees some 26 or 28 BD's with 2 holes in them about the size of your thumb,Hurting you can guess where they came from,and why they are in there!
It really dont matter how properly an alteration on a vintage drum is done to a serious collector, unless of course if there were no extra holes drilled and the original pieces came with the kit. There was a thread on this a while back. It was all about values of rewraped drums etc........THese guys on here can spot a unoriginal part on a drum from the worst and smallest of pics..Drum hardware has come a long way since the 60's. A lot of that old hardware got loose and turned and fell etc....... I have a 60 luddy kit someone installed pearl spurs in place of the swing out spurs. The pearl spurs are way better, but ruined the originality of that kit.
Exactly! All this 'vintage' stuff was state of the art at one time, as were we. Sixties and Seventies kits, to me, were new and 'alterable' to make them better. poppy has an excellent example, those blasted Ludwig spurs... I mean really, who in their right mind would use those when you had so many other possibilities after the early '70's? I don't know how many Ludwig kits I've seen with the swing outs replaced with early versions of folding leg 'spurs'. The first time I saw those things I was tempted to gut my kit and change them. If I would have still been gigging I probably would have... By then I was married with a kid, drums bits were way down the list.
Stupid teenager - me - had to have those newfangled snare straps on my supraphonic so I drilled a couple of larger holes, added a strap and a couple of nuts and bolts. This was around 1974... the drum was about 13 years old and so was I.
Jim
Ok,Here's the big one for me when it comes to altering a vintage drum..This was years ago i have a 14x14 Ludwig "Club Date" floor tom in W.M.P and YES i did cut it down to a 10x14 and re-wraped it in W.M.P. but i was back in 1975 when i was 15 years old..Also at the shop i have Customize vintage drums ones i don't own.Had a guy bring in a Gretsch R.B 4 pc set and wanted me to change out the tom mount to a Pearl mount that was a few years ago.. A 1930's Slingerland Radio king is in B.D.P. guy wanted me to change out the lugs and re-cut the edges.The list gos on and on....Mikey
LOL I remember being state of the art. My dad had all sorts of tools in our garage, including a drill. I had a purple Schwinn stingray I severly molested!
All my brothers drummers had hollywood kits. Mine was a 4 piece. All I ever wanted was to have two tom toms.......
