When my daughter was first taking lessons I was just getting into vintage drums and bought her a 60's red sparkle Ludwig clubdate set which I cleaned up and gave her for Christmas. She played them for a while, but she finally admitted that the set she REALLY liked was a bunch of old black Tama drums that had come with the clubdates because the seller wanted to clean out his garage and which I had put in the car figuring I could use some of the parts and heads. They were a partial set; a mix of Swingstar and Imperialstar, some standard some power-toms and covered with stickers (which must have been popular in the 80's).
That was the set that floated her boat and made her want to play, so over time while looking for 60's and earlier drums for myself I kept my eye open for and tracked down some more of the 80's drums (which she found stickers for) and that's the set she still plays today a dozen years later.
I always found it funny that in a house with 60's Gretsch, Ludwig and Slingerland, she picked the 80's Tama's (which I have to admit sound and work just fine).
