Greeting Vintage Drum Fans!
For this installment of Vintage Happiness I am pleased to bring another amazing Rogers kit into my collection. Rogers were considered to be the “Cadillac” of Vintage Drums and the more I spend time looking into this company’s impressive history, the more I understand why. They are VERY well built and innovative drum sets. It’s really that simple.
This is a 1965 Swingtime Outfit in the not so often seen Wine Red Ripple Pearl.
It’s a bit of a tongue twister to say indeed! I have learned (thanks to many of the Rogers experts online) that this is one of the rarest wraps Rogers produced and was not a particular big seller. To me it seems that most vintage drum companies “Pink” drums did not sell well when they were first introduced to the public all those years ago. And that low number of kits makes for quite a treasure hunt today. This set came to me from a collector located in PA. The sizes are 20x14 bass drum, 8x12 tom and a 16x16 floor tom. All the Cleveland paper tags are present and for the hard core Rogers folks the serial numbers are:
Holiday Bass Drum-60791
Holiday Floor Tom- 60450
Holiday Rack Tom- 54917
The drums are in fantastic shape. Once again I am amazed to see another set of drums that have survived decades and to remain in such great condition. These have been well cared for over the years. There is NO rust or pitting on any of the amazing Swivomatic hardware and the wrap has no fade at all. The color of these drums is quite amazing and they really stand out at a show. The set did not include a matching snare drum so I am happy to finally have a home for my fathers 1968 Dynasonic I restored a couple years back. I am currently looking to find a matching Powertone model snare drum and as we all know, some rare drums can take years to find. But the hunt is also part of the fun!
How do they sound?
I’ve used this set at several shows already. At one particular well-known venue, the sound guy complimented me on such a great sounding kit. These drums sing! There is much punch from the 20” kick. The tom tunes up very nice and the floor tom is very impressive! I do not like my drums tuned high so this kit really sounds perfect to my personal lower tuning liking. Great tone and massive projection with Classic Remo Vintage Coated Ambassadors all around. The COB Dynasonic has such an incredible crack and it fits in perfectly with this set. Once again, I am impressed with the innovative Swivomatic hardware on these drums. Including the extra mount on the floor tom to mount a cymbal off. This is some 20th century hardware innovation and the metal is top notch. This kit has worked its way into my rotation very quickly and will be seeing many live shows in the future. A fantastic well built and very beautiful drum set that I am VERY THANKFUL to have added to my collection.
Until next time, PLAY those drums!