circa 1971 pic of Bob Da Druma

Awesome photo. Your sister (?) in the background seems more interested in the landscaping than in your playing. That's a pretty sweet first kit though. My first kit is long gone too, but I'm glad it's gone (CB700 crap-o-matic with Santa Claus color scheme).
 

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Sentimental? Yes. A fool? Maybe, but Old? Neber-Eber EBER!!!. Age is but a date on the calendar. You my friend are still that same skinny kid behind the swirly kit only with better stories to tell!
You are right Malti, I am still that skinny innocent young lad at heart.
 
Boomstick, I like that pic. You look focused and inspired.
Heh, that's very kind of you to say. However, my guess is whatever I was playing didn't sound very focused and inspired. Wish I could go back and give young me a few pointers, starting with how to set up that kit properly!
 
Boomstick that pic belongs...

IN THE TOM ANGLES THREAD ha ha!
 
Hey bobdadruma, that Narragansett throne is pretty sweet. I like that you could carry your hardware in it. It makes me want to make my own "custom" throne, like the old school ones that held hardware. The downside of those, I assume, was they were not height adjustable. But if I made my own, I could make it the right height. Hmmmm...
 
Hey bobdadruma, that Narragansett throne is pretty sweet. I like that you could carry your hardware in it. It makes me want to make my own "custom" throne, like the old school ones that held hardware. The downside of those, I assume, was they were not height adjustable. But if I made my own, I could make it the right height. Hmmmm...
Now that I think back on it, I remember wishing that my parents would buy me a drummers throne for a birthday or Christmas. They never got the message for some reason or other. They weren't very supportive of my drumming. I bought my first throne when I bought my 74 Gretsch kit. I still have the base from that throne and I still use it with a different seat on my practice kit.

The beer crate was not very comfortable. I wasn't sorry to see it go!

An old friend emailed Me the other day after he saw these pics on Facebook.
He told me that he has the old beer case! Apparently I gave it to him. He uses it to store pieces of stained glass for his hobby. All these years and the beer case still exists!
 
An old friend emailed Me the other day after he saw these pics on Facebook. He told me that he has the old beer case! Apparently I gave it to him. He uses it to store pieces of stained glass for his hobby. All these years and the beer case still exists!
LOL, that is hilarious! And how frustrating, in a way, since your Slingys are long gone, but you could still get the beer case throne back if you wanted to.
 
LOL, that is hilarious! And how frustrating, in a way, since your Slingys are long gone, but you could still get the beer case throne back if you wanted to.
Thats true. I sold the drums from an ad in The Bargain News. I have no recollection of the name of the guy that bought them. I have no way to track them down. It would be funny if a forum member contacted me and told me that I sold them to him and he knew where they were.
 
Bob, weren't you cuuute! Awwwwwwww :)

Bob said:
I remember frequently setting up and playing outside. I liked the sound of the drums as they echoed through the neighborhood.

... perhaps not so cute. I'm surprised the neighbours didn't march into your property at night with flaming torches - BRING OUT THE CHILD DEMON!

It could explain why ...

... I remember wishing that my parents would buy me a drummers throne for a birthday or Christmas. They never got the message for some reason or other. They weren't very supportive of my drumming.

All I can say is "ditto". (I've just been watching Ghost and that famous scene with The Righteous Brothers playing while Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore play with clay)
 
Polly, The neighbors Knew that as long as I was playing, I wasn't getting into any mischief around the hood! Im sure that you can imagine what I was like as a kid!

A man named Tony, who lived a few houses away gave me my stage name.
He was originally from the Bronx in NYC. He spoke with a distinctive Bronx accent.
He would call me Bob Da Druma. The word "da" always replaced "the" when Tony spoke.
He was well over six feet tall and he looked like a Mafia boss, except he had a heart of gold and he would give you the shirt of his back. Tony also had the most common sense, and more Street smarts than anyone that I have ever met.
He always helped me out of jams that I got myself into around the neighborhood.
I also wound up working for him from 1981 until he died in 1999.
I work for his son now.
Tony was like a second Father to me. I still miss him and his humorous ways.
Never underestimate the power of the word Da!
 
They weren't very supportive of my drumming. I bought my first throne when I bought my 74 Gretsch kit. I still have the base from that throne and I still use it with a different seat on my practice kit.

The beer crate was not very comfortable. I wasn't sorry to see it go!

LOL, my parents did the same, so I robbed them of the kitchen step ladder/stool which was entirely too high to comfortably play the drums. I did not get a bonafide throne until I could afford my first set of Ludwigs in 1974.
 
LOL, my parents did the same, so I robbed them of the kitchen step ladder/stool which was entirely too high to comfortably play the drums. I did not get a bonafide throne until I could afford my first set of Ludwigs in 1974.
We used what we could find around the house.
When I first started to play, I wanted a wooden Ludwig drum pad. Im sure that you remember what they looked like back then. They had suction cups on the bottom and the rubber pad was glued to a slanted piece of wood. Forget It! My parents wouldn't go for that. It cost $20.00.
I cut and old bicycle inner tube into rubber strips. I taped the rubber strips to an old book. ( I think that it was one of "The Hardy Boys" volumes) I set the home made drum pad on one of those slanted student desk and chair combinations, and that was my practice pad.

A few years ago I bought one of those vintage ludwig drum pads just so that I finally could have one!
 
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My first kit is long gone too, but I'm glad it's gone (CB700 crap-o-matic with Santa Claus color scheme).
I had the same kit as that but mine was blue sparkle. Didn't those tom mounts suck? Hey, I like that kit in the picture behind you. Looks an awful lot like one less than a mile from where I'm sitting... it's at Donn Bennett's Drum Studio.
 

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LOL! Yeah, that's totally the kit!

Agree, that CB700 hardware was terrible. I had many problems with it.
 
Looks an awful lot like one less than a mile from where I'm sitting... it's at Donn Bennett's Drum Studio.

Ah, Carmine's famous Octa-Plus!

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Did they have kits like the CB700 and the Export back in the late sixties and early seventies?
I seem to recall that there were children's toy sets and the next step from there was intermediate level kits.
Everyone that I knew bought a used intermediate kit for their first kit.
We all wanted a Ludwig, Rogers, Gretsch, or Slingerland. Nothing else! I never even heard of Pearl until much later. No one that I knew would buy any product from Asia at that time.
People had a big dislike for Asian products. My local music store didn't have any Asian products on display. Other kids would pick on you if you had a Japanese bicycle!
That all changed abruptly by 1973 when the Honda Civic and the Datsun 240Z took America by storm.
 
I remember frequently setting up and playing outside. I liked the sound of the drums as they echoed through the neighborhood. A friend of mine used to sometimes bring his kit over and we would play and do trade offs outside..

Its cool that you still have those pics man! As far as setting up and playing outside... it IS the best but try doing that these days and you ll have the police there within minutes(unless you have a very large property) !!! And nothing helps your posture like a perfectly adjusted piece of wood, LOL. What was mounted on that bass drum ride mount? A cowbell?
 
Its cool that you still have those pics man! As far as setting up and playing outside... it IS the best but try doing that these days and you ll have the police there within minutes(unless you have a very large property) !!! And nothing helps your posture like a perfectly adjusted piece of wood, LOL. What was mounted on that bass drum ride mount? A cowbell?
Yes, I used the cymbal mount for a cowbell. I don't think that it occurred to me that it was for your ride cymbal!
All of my cymbal stands were wobbly! The bass and hat pedals were leather drive. The cymbals were called "Krut" or something like that. They sounded like their name!

I replaced the cymbals with Zildjian new beats and A's. I replaced the pedal with a Speed King.

Behind my house was a large cemetery. No dead people ever complained about the noise!
There were four neighbors that sometimes bitched a little. I terrorized them for it! I was a rotten kid! I was always in detention at school. Every cop in town knew me well!
I hadn't learned how to deal with my anger problems yet. That came later when I was about 16.
 
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