The one thing I can't live with....

I just don't see late 80's drums as being vintage. Perhaps I'm in denial. T rods are unnecessary weight. I think Sonor's design is unnecessary as well. Simple rods are all that's needed.
 
As has been said by my mate down under,I love the look,especially on 50's up to 70's Ludwigs,Slingerland,Gretsch ect,but the function leaves something to be desired.Besides the fact that they do seem to get in the way,the bottom rods prohibit you from fine tuning.Its either a full turn or nothing.

Having said that,I refuse to replace them on my vintage bass drums.You can also identify a vintage drum by the T-rods,providing they are original to the drum.

Steve B
 
Bo Eder said:
In my case, I'm not sure what Tama was thinking with the Granstar design in the late 80s. The stock T-rods are HUGE and probably a little dangerous...
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My kit is a Tama Artstar II from the same period, yes, the T-rods were huge, but when I ordered the kit, I added a set or regular rods for the bass drums, as I did with most of my previous kits, never liked the T-rods, they add size the drum, they're not aesthetical, unless they follow the rim, but it's at the detriment of tuning, you catch things on them, people can knock them and detune the head, a pain to put the BD in a flightcase, I much prefer regular rods, simple, discreet, does the job and aesthetically look better.

Pocket-full-of-gold said:
but we ain't that old yet my friend. :)
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Mmmmh... My daughter reckon we are that old!!!

Don't you remember, when you were 18, somebody who was 50 years of age were old for us :)
 
My beginner kit had t-rods on the bass. It was a horrible cheap set but I loved it because my parents bought it for me for christmas. I had to replace all the thin ridiculous unusable hardware as it broke! nothing was thick and heavy duty. It was like thin sixties hardware! On a early nineties kit! But I now play Mapex and when I bought the kit the regular tension rods were a step up for me IMO. They don't move or de-tune at all. I never have to make adjustments on the fly, I always turn it on it's side and tune before I load up so it's good to go all night.
 
I like the T-Rods. I think they make a kit look classy. But I can see where people have issues with them. I usually wear shorts when I play drums, so I don't typically have to worry. My drums have regular tension rods, but I'd love to get some t-rods a bit later down the road.
 
larryace said:
I just don't see late 80's drums as being vintage. Perhaps I'm in denial.
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Did you consider 50s kits to be vintage in the 80s? Sure you did.

I know it's hard to believe that 30 years ago we were already adults (legally). As Henri said, people in their teens and early 20s definitely see us as vintage. I know what I thought of people over 50 when I was around 20 ... a bit like My Generation.
 
Anon La Ply said:
Did you consider 50s kits to be vintage in the 80s? Sure you did.

I know it's hard to believe that 30 years ago we were already adults (legally). As Henri said, people in their teens and early 20s definitely see us as vintage. I know what I thought of people over 50 when I was around 20 ... a bit like My Generation.
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Most sadly, how true :(
 
But vintage kits were made different. I consider anything from late 70's and on to be "modern" drums.
Practically every vintage drum from the majors have re-rings, Gretsch excluded of course. Vintage means thin shells w/ re rings to me.
 
To derail a bit a bit regarding the reinforcing rings, oddly enough I never cared if it was a straight shell or a shell with re-rings. They just had to sound good when I played 'em ;)

I do recall when I bought my first kit with my own money in 1984, a Tama Superstar, that was my first confrontation with a drum without re-rings, and I thought it was indicative of how strong they were because they obviously didn't need them. The Neil Peart turned all that around, remember that?
 
I'm going to go against the grain here, but I LIKE T-rods! I've never actually had a snagging issue or a detuning incident. I like the look, and I like that you don't have to use a drum key on the bass drum. My DW bass drum has regular tension rods, and it drives me crazy having to fumble with a drum key to tune it up. With T-rods, it's much quicker to tune/adjust. For me, anyways...
 
I have always been a hard hitter on my bass drum. Even with a rug and using the spurs it would always walk on me. I would often take some string around the T rods and tie it off to my drum stool. It worked back then.

These days if I think it will be an issue I do something similar but from the back of my bass drum pedal to one foot of my stool.

I like Sonor's bass drum easy adjust knobs. I wish my set now had them. They look classy and function well.
 
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