When the weather starts warming up, I like to get outside and set up a classic drum set in front of my garage door and take some photos. Seriously, people everywhere know my drum photos because of that door. There was a scammer a few years back who used some of my drum photos to try to advertise drums for sale that he didn't own. Someone immediately contacted me because they recognized my garage door. That sharp eyed vintage drum lover helped us shut down the scammer. It is really convenient for me to set up for photos at this door because this building is my drum building. I did park a car in this building years ago, but now there is no room because it is totally full of drums. I tell my wife, "if only I had built a bigger building," to which she replies, "if only you would sell some drums."
The beautiful set I am featuring in this article is a 1976 Rogers Londoner V set built in Fullerton, California. They have a very nice KOA finish which was a Rogers finish from 1973 to 1976. The finish is hard like a counter top. This finish was according to Jack Propps fellow vintage drummer "The finish a lot of southern rockers used in the 70s, Monty Yoho- The Outlaws, Frank Beard-ZZ Top, Rick Burnett -Grinderswitch , Danny Darling-Jay Boy Adams and more. The finish was 'down home' but more durable than lacquered Gretsch or Slingerland and took bumps and bruises of 1 night stands across the USA." This set features a 24"X14" bass drum, 12", 13", 16" standard depth toms. The shells are five ply with reinforcement rings and coated with the grey trunk paint inside. The heads spin easily on the shells. The lugs are Beavertails and all the hardware is Memriloc which started in 1976. The badges are Big R USA foil type with serial numbers. The snare is a sweet 1976 COB Dynasonic with the redesigned snare guards which allowed complete rotation of the drum key on the tension rods closest to the guard.
My friend Stewart Ray at Center Stage Music in Augusta, Ga. sent the original owner of this set to me when he came in trying to trade or sell this set. The set was bought new back in the 70s, played many years and then put away for a while. Now the owner is ready to take up playing again, but was hoping to get a fresher looking set for his new band. The Rogers set was pretty tired looking, and needed full restoration. Even I was a little surprised how the set came forth after hours of cleaning and polishing. They look great and sound fantastic.