According to Harry Cangany in his book,"The Great American Drums...and the Companies That Made Them" yes it was a factory option.Lots of drummers of the day wanted Rogers swiv-0-matic,which was considered the best of it's time,on their drums.

Ringo,Baker,Dennis Wilson and Bonham for a time ,used swiv-o-matic tom mounts and stands.

He dosen't elaborate if the hardware was customer supplied or not,but they were factory installed at Camco.

If DoFan54 is around,he'll chime in hopefully

Steve B

Hey thanks, I saw a old ad from the 60s, forget the drummer, but he had it on his camco. Was it a option in the catalog?

Why would so many people choose the Rogers?....

Someone had to say......this is better then a Camco rail....and they would go with it....

Seems like just about every Camco kit I have ever seen has had a rubber stamp inside stating....

EDDIE KNIGHT DRUM SHOP...........INDIANA

Must be the close proximity to Michigan. We don't get anything from Indiana down here that I know of...........except rental cars with Indiana plates.

On Rogers hardware mounted to Camco drums, I'd estimate about 10% of Camco kits I've seen over the years had Rogers swivo mounts or, at least, a Rogers strainer on a snare.

In the mid 60's we all wanted Rogers. For me it was soured when I saw a drummer at a gig who had lost his drum key (hand me the pliers). It sounded like the "tragic flaw" I had just learned about that plagued most ancient Greek theatrical heroes.

The author was obviously mistaken. Camco never installed other companies hardware on their drums at the factory..It was not an option regardless of what some might say.. Often at the request of the buyer, the music store selling the drums would install after market hardware but they never left the factory that way. No doubt ordered and shipped out virgin then a salesman or a drum tech at the store drilled and installed it.

Blair - I have a 1959 Geo. Way bass drum with Rogers swivo tom and cymbal arm hardware on it. It has the 'Eddie Knight' stamp inside and I took the time to call him to ask about the drum. He's a very old man now (if he's still alive,) and he told me that he would order pieces/individual virgin drums from Camco and that he would add the Swivo hardware! He sold some kits to his students over the years and I'm sure they account for some of the 'Eddie Knight' stamped drums floating around out there.

So, not Camco... Eddie added it at his music store/studio. I'm sure at least a few other dealers nationally were doing the same thing.

John

John,

Kudos to you for going directly to the source to mitigate this debate. No more reliable data than a first person, personal account. And all it took was a phone call. Very cool.

Well I guess,it won't be the first time I read something in a book about drums that wasn't 100% correct.We live and we learn.

Steve B

http://vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=36806 Here is another example of a factory ordered Camco kit where the store had to install the Roger's hardware on an Oaklawn era set for one of our members and a studio musician/drummer of Ill-Wind.