Spin off thread, first time you ever played a drumset

My first time was my cousins Ludwig black oyster pearl Ringo set. This would have been about 1967. Isn't it curious that 11 years later, the first set I got with my own money was a blue oyster pearl set of Luds? Imprinting is a powerful force.

Also about '67 or '68, my first year in jr high, I met and became friends with a guy named Dean, who looked just like the classic Big Boy icon. He had a Camco kit in that weird swirly pattern, which I'd occasionally go to his house to play. Looked like the pic below (not his kit, found on web):

I didn't get my own kit until a year or two later, and it was only a crappy Japanese import. I would have killed for a Camco, then and now.

My first kit I played was a 4 piece sparkle blue Kent. My parents bought it for me almost one year later for $50. This kit was in a friends basement stacked up in a corner. I was around 10 years old at the time.

The first kit I played on was my high school's 4 piece Ludwig with green sparkle finish (school colors). This was around 1978-79. I always wondered what ever became of that kit. For all I know it may have been the coveted three ply maples!

First kit I ever played was my clarinet teachers set. I wanted to play in middle school jazz band, but there were no clarinets in it, then one day I was walking past the high school auditorium and the drummer for high school jazz band was rocking out, and I was like I want to do THAT! So the next time I went for clarinet lessons it became drum lessons, never looked back and can't play the clarinet for crap anymore.

I saw a drummer come to my grade school. Told parents I wanted to play drums. They bought a CB-700 off a painter friend and that was the first drum set I played.

my brother had a drum kit in the late 70s that was a hybrid Slingerland/Ludwig with vintage Zildjians

still have the whole kit and vow to one day have it all refurbished ...not the cymbals of course....but the drums are missing some hardware and hoops and whatnot from me experimenting over the years

I remember putting records on the record player stretching the coiled chord of these huge headphones all the way to the drums and trying to play along to KISS, the Police, Kansas, Zeppelin, and Billy Squire records that kept skipping every time I hit the kick drum

ahh the good old days

I think the first real drum set I played on was my friend's Slingerland set back in the early 80s. He was really good and it was a huge moment for me to get a chance to just play away. I couldn't get back there often enough. Eventually, he went away to college and let me have the drums over at my house for that entire school year.

In between, I had assembled a junky old set my Grandpa had acquired by searching the junk yards and garage sales. So when I got those nice Slingerlands all to myself for almost a whole year, I practiced constantly. The following year, he took the drums back when he came home for summer break. That's when I had saved enough to buy my own first set.

I remember being just fascinated by everything about the drums. Not being able to touch them up to that point, I didn't really understand the mechanics behind what produced the sound coming out of drums. The hi-hats really baffled me; I didn't understand how drummers created those sounds on the disco records where the hi-hats opened and closed. It was a revelation for me to sit behind the set and experience that stuff and make sense of it.

It was an instrument of wonder to me back then, and in a lot of ways, it still is today.

This:

A premier elite 5 drum set in amber gold wrap- sounded awful as the heads were toast!

LukeSnyder said:

This:

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As cool as that pic is, it doesn't qualify. I said a drumset lol.

Great shot Luke, but you're mashing the stick to your palm.....

larryace said:

As cool as that pic is, it doesn't qualify. I said a drumset lol.

Great shot Luke, but you're mashing the stick to your palm.....

Click to expand...

Pshh, thats an e-drum set! I just couldn't reach the pedals, haha. I only played on e-drums until I was about 12, haha.

I think my first was a blue sparkle Tempo/Tempro.

I was 17. It was my friends Ludwig kit in his bedroom. I had played piano and guitar til then. 30 minutes on that kit, trying to cop my first 4/4 money beat and I was smitten.

I used to lie to his mom that he said I could come over and wait for him to get home just I could play that kit.

Changed my life forever. Been a drummer ever since.

TTNW said:

I used to lie to his mom that he said I could come over and wait for him to get home just I could play that kit.

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That's great. You know you really love something when you lie to get it. Mark of a dedicated pro IMO. Go lying!

Probably sometime around 1990, when I was in high school and started playing in garage/basement bands (I played guitar then). I'd always jump on my friend's kit when I could... The best was when we practiced in MY basement and they'd leave their kits

I'll list out some of the joys that belong to the first kit, and the kit I "came up" on as a drummer.

-It was a "Sunlite"
-It had duct tape X's over all the toms, and the cymbals.
-there was no snare stand. It was a box for a backpack style weed sprayer we set the snare on.
-All the cymbal stands(except for the hats) were "improvised" using wood, old music stands, even a big candle-holder.
-only 1 cymbal was not cracked.
-there was a "effect" device set on top of the kit. This "device" was a tin container for cat food.
-we/I played with custom-made bundle sticks comprised of cooking skewers taped together.

Man, those were the days. After that, a buddy loaned me a kit, old Tama Swingstar, and from there I bought all 3 of my current kits over time.

Age 2 (1980)

................................................................

Me: 14 years old. Come home from school and BAM! In my room was a kit! It was an, n to drums before that. Parental intuition?

First kit I played was one my short-lived company built. Not good memories, lol.