reissues versus vintage

I bought a reissue Fender Mustang bass. Not only that, but it was made in Japan rather than the USA.
It was mostly a matter of pricing. IMO the older USA made ones are being priced way beyond their value.
I must say that it's very good quality, and I'm happy with it.

I don't have much nostalgia for older drums.
I was not drumming for the longest of times,
and still constantly hear of drums that I didn't know about because of that absence.

Old Ludwigs are the only ones that gave me a little twinge,
but I compromised a bit and got a somewhat newer set.
 
Vintage guitars sell for more money than vintage drums because there are way, way, way more guitar players in the world than drummers.

Which means there is way, way, way more demand for vintage guitars than vintage drums.
 
The idea many other instruments have in regard to electric guitar tones being all about pedal and electronics, almost comparing it to an electronic drum kit is frankly a bit insulting. For the right player with a simple traditional setup it surely is more or less an acoustic instrument that just happens to have an expanded dynamic range. Some people are tone players and care others are not...

...Now, no offence to drummers, like I am too now, but a metal snare drum and a quality guitar do not represent the same level of craftmanship. Finding a good old guitar is also more rare, but yes there is also more of a collectors market in guitars which drives the prices up. Those buyers are collectors and not players.

Great observations...Guys like the lead guitar player in our band, who plays a $12K PRS with PRS pickups wound with actual wire from 1958 -- his setup is guitar, cable, amp. Then again, he's been playing for 45+ years and knows a little bit about working the volume and tone controls through a Plexi. His "tone" is incredible...

I don't know how the bearing edges are on the old Ludwig wood drums, but my '76 Vistalites are almost comical! Bearing edge? What's that? On these drums, while the edges are flat and true, there's not really much of an "edge." More like, they were cut to the specific depth with a good, true cut, then the sharp edges were rounded over a bit. Not enough to call a "roundover" edge, mind you. After 40 years, they show a bit of "shrinkage" (low spot) right at the shell seams. Makes tuning a challenge -- once you get it to a point you can live with, don't touch it and mess with a good thing! There IS a certain charm with this, but any newer drum is just SO precise and does not present us with these "choices."
 
I listened to a clip on Sakae's website comparing their Trilogy snare drums to some old vintage drums. They sounded so dissimilar it was comical. I wondered why they even bothered putting them up on their site.

Given how much better the machines are that create drumshells, I wonder how hard it would be to make some shells randomly out-of-round? And then maybe do hand-cut bearing edges so at least a few of them don't come out right. Then you'd be on to some vintage territory, eh?
 
Given how much better the machines are that create drumshells, I wonder how hard it would be to make some shells randomly out-of-round? And then maybe do hand-cut bearing edges so at least a few of them don't come out right. Then you'd be on to some vintage territory, eh?

Check out what Stone Custom Drum does.

http://stonecustomdrum.com/

Bernie made me a "new" 3-ply maple snare shell out of the original Slingerland machines. Hand cut the edges and drilled the holes himself. I then preceded to install 70's Roger Dynasonic hardware to the drum (minus the snare bridge) and wrap it in "Vintage WMP". So technically a new snare, made of new wood; but everything about it from the creation of the drum itself to the hardware is "vintage." I love the oddity of the thing.
 
Here we go again, the can't say anything about Ringo brigade regardless of context. Wonder what Purdie was using at that time seeing as he's on the recordings.

.......Lets go fishing

You're the guy! I'm not a brigade member, more into the Morello club, at el... but the Starr(key's) donated it all to a charity they founded. So the reality is he made a cool nothing off the auction. I just thought the whole auction for charity idea was great.

A few years ago Cobham had warehouse in NYC full of kits that were probably endorsement kits etc... and he auctioned all that off but I'm not sure if that was a charitable event or not.

Already been fishing this week and I'm going back out on Monday.
 
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There are some companies that have produced great sounding "replica" or "vintage" sounding drums, and I applaud them for it. I refer to C&C and George Way offerings. I would rather have one of these made to todays standars, rather than a 60's Ludwig set that some guy had in a basement, stacked one on another, which may have ply separation that you can't see. Along with corroded hardware, don't forget that older sutff may not have been built as sturdy as new stuff to begin with. If you want to play old stuff, just be prepares to nurse it along and be patient with it. Old is not always better.
 
Great observations...Guys like the lead guitar player in our band, who plays a $12K PRS with PRS pickups wound with actual wire from 1958 -- his setup is guitar, cable, amp. Then again, he's been playing for 45+ years and knows a little bit about working the volume and tone controls through a Plexi. His "tone" is incredible...

I don't know how the bearing edges are on the old Ludwig wood drums, but my '76 Vistalites are almost comical! Bearing edge? What's that? On these drums, while the edges are flat and true, there's not really much of an "edge." More like, they were cut to the specific depth with a good, true cut, then the sharp edges were rounded over a bit. Not enough to call a "roundover" edge, mind you. After 40 years, they show a bit of "shrinkage" (low spot) right at the shell seams. Makes tuning a challenge -- once you get it to a point you can live with, don't touch it and mess with a good thing! There IS a certain charm with this, but any newer drum is just SO precise and does not present us with these "choices."

Please explain to me in scientific terms how wire from 1958 effects anything. Electrons care as much about that as they care about what wood the transducers that pickup the vibrations of the ferromagnetic strings and turn them int electrical current, that create the sound of an electric guitar are placed in. Actually even less, as way down the line wood has a tiny little bitty effect on the sound of an electric guitar.
 
I can understand owning a new kit made to replicate vintage sound and feel. It's a lot easier to gig with because all bearing edges are perfect and very easy to tune. Hardware is new, technologically advanced and is very easy to set up and use. Nothing finicky about it. Just set up and play. That has absolute value for sure.

When I purchased my vintage Luddy. I noticed a faint buzzing noise coming from what appeared to be the shells. After further investigating I found the sound coming from a few of the lugs. I did some research and found that the springs in those older drums were never dampened and so over time they loosen and vibrate with the resonance. I found a solution where you remove all the lugs from the shells, wrap each spring with thin felt and problem solved. Now to some that's a huge hassle. For me though it gave me a reason to tear down my set, intimately get to know it and better understand it. That was really cool. Something I wouldn't do (or need to do) with a new, laser precision made set. Also, I can't use just any drum key to tune all the drums on my vintage Luddy. I have to use a drum key with thin metal walls because some of the lugs are closer to the rim than the other lugs. Personally, I like that I know that and know which lugs are slightly off the mark and IMHO all those imperfections are what make it have that sound and feel that only vintage has.

To each their own and I don't feel either new or vintage is a "standard" better than the other. Each have pros and cons that matter to the individual. Like owning a 2016 Camaro vs a 1969. Some would hate having to always tinker with the 1969 and the unrefined "rawness" of it vs the precision of the 2016...while others would dig that.

I guess the answer is to just own both ;-)
 
Could it be that vintage guitars sound amazing and your average old drums sound like garbage?

...most older drums just sound like cr@p as compared to newer drums.

Very true. Spot on. Drums have come a long way from the turn of the last century, and even from the beginning of the current century.
 
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