More blast from the past stuff - Rogers Big R kit

Bo Eder

Platinum Member
So, as some of you know, I found a nice deal on some Rogers Big R drums, and between the guy who had them and our own John Ploughman, they could be from that 1973-75 era. It is interesting that the badges have neither a serial number or "made in the USA" on them - I'm gonna go with the John Ploughman theory and hope they were a one-off made by a factory worker for himself or a company gift.

However, they are nice. Thin shells with reinforcing rings - I hate to say it, but they sound beefier than my Slingerlands (which are five-ply without reinforcing rings) - probably because of the thinness of the shells. But when I got them, they didn't have bottom heads or rims. Fortunately, I had extra 12/13/16 hoops in my garage, and went to the local music store to pick up some replacement tension rods for the floor tom (I had extras for the small toms). The batter side bass drum hoop had a few spots that were splitting - good thing I'm handy with a bottle of Gorilla Glue, a razor blade, and little C clamps - so those are fixed. One thing I wasn't aware of, and apparently the seller didn't see them either, was the cracks in the faux koa finish (its a wrap). I'm not too bummed about it as you can't really see them, and I may give it a go at re-gluing those down. The seam on the floor tom is already lifting (which I knew about), but like everyone else, that'll be covered by a stick bag usually.

The seller says he'll contact me about those cracks, he was getting on a plane. So it'll be nice if he gives me a break on it. But otherwise the kit is solid. I put coated ambassadors top and bottom, and a coated PS3 and smooth white ambassador on the bass drum. I'm awaiting a Rogers vinyl logo sticker to put on the smooth white ambassador from a guy in Canada, then the kit will be complete.

Incredibly, Rogers stuff is designed really well. That Memriloc tom mount doesn't budge after 40 years. And it was a genius idea to make the floor tom legs hexagonal rather than round. They don't spin at all! It's like none of the metal bits suffered any fatigue in 40 years, it's all easily adjustable with a drum key, and once set, it stays that way! I am impressed. This kit will probably outlast me the way its built. And it sounds great! I'm happy with it. Makes me wonder why I didn't have one of these as a kid (oh yeah, we were blinded by the Japanese in the late 70s, remember that?). I do feel a little grief that Rogers really went down because other companies literally stole alot of their designs, and then they just couldn't keep up, or maybe they didn't want to. But I think everyone should remember that this is where alot of the modern ideas in hardware came from, eh?

Enjoy the pictures!
 

Attachments

  • Faux-Koa.jpg
    Faux-Koa.jpg
    55.1 KB · Views: 1,894
  • Memriloc-tom-holder.jpg
    Memriloc-tom-holder.jpg
    64.8 KB · Views: 1,450
  • Rogers-Front.jpg
    Rogers-Front.jpg
    63.2 KB · Views: 2,740
  • Rogers-back.jpg
    Rogers-back.jpg
    69.8 KB · Views: 1,418
Sweet kit. I like the knobbies on the floor tom. On my XP-8, I switched the Memriloc floor tom leg/holders to the Swivo - like yours. And yeah, those Rogers shells sound great.​
 
Oh yeah!! Sweetness!!

I KNOW you're going to put up a video soon...
 
.

The whole kit looks in really great shape.


Talk about heavy duty bass drum spurs. It looks like they expected a big heavy guy to be jumping up and down on the bass drum or something - ha ha.
 
Nice. Can't wait for your audio :)
Those are indeed some bad a$$ bass drum spurs. Is there any spike on the end of the rubber?
.
 
Nice. Can't wait for your audio :)
Those are indeed some bad a$$ bass drum spurs. Is there any spike on the end of the rubber?
.

Taking the rubber tips off reveals a cut in the tubing which are spike-like. So I can dig in to something if necessary.

Cool thing is I received my Rogers logo decals so I can make my front reso complete the vibe now ;). I'm really blown away by how resonant these drums are and how easy they are to tune. Rogers certainly built them right.
 
Very nice kit. Now you need a Dyna-Sonic snare. I remember playing one back in my school days (when I didn't think too much about gear), and thinking 'wow, this is a really nice snare!'
 
Those are beasts, and they match any furniture setup as well. Probably cost an arm and leg back in the day too. Nice.
 
See,aren't you glad you didn't listen to that Perry guy.?

Rogers were the Caddilac of American for a time.

That manufacturing date is earlier that I thought it was,so yeah,3 ply not 5 ply shells.

John's the man with Rogers for sure.

Theys look great Matt,best of luck,but now you need a dyn-a-sonic to go with them.

Steve B
 
See,aren't you glad you didn't listen to that Perry guy.?

Rogers were the Caddilac of American for a time.

That manufacturing date is earlier that I thought it was,so yeah,3 ply not 5 ply shells.

John's the man with Rogers for sure.

Theys look great Matt,best of luck,but now you need a dyn-a-sonic to go with them.

Steve B

It was a given not to listen to that Perry guy ;)

It is funny however that although their drumsets were great, I've met several fellow drum corps friends who said their marching stuff wasn't very good - which was the reason Ludwig and Slingerland dominated that market for decades. I've yet to see a 70s-era Rogers marching snare to make the judgment though.

I'm continuing the inner debate about getting a Dynasonic - maybe one day but not any time soon with Christmas coming up.
 
I never had the privilege of playing a Rogers drums set. I am looking forward to seeing you play some more, and hearing the new drums.
 
I never had the privilege of playing a Rogers drums set. I am looking forward to seeing you play some more, and hearing the new drums.

Well, I'm working on getting the front logo head ready ;) Some things have to take precedence.

Although I said these sound a bit meatier compared to the 5-ply no-rings Slingerlands (and possibly my 6-ply no rings Ludwigs), I will be honest and say they probably don't sound much different from any other thin-ply with re-rings drums. Meaning your vintage Ludwigs, as well as Bob's vintage Ludwigs, probably sound about the same - or maybe even the new Ludwig Club Dates (those have reinforcing rings, too, right?). I have a theory (and this has probably been confirmed by many people before me) that perhaps the rings take most of the tension and allow the rest of the shell to ring freely - which is probably explaining the meatiness when compared to straight shells with no rings. But I won't say they sound better, just slightly different, eh?
 
I am slowly getting sucked into the vintage drum world, and Rogers are a real curiosity to me. Slingerlands too. Only because I have zero experience with them. And they were both around in my formative years. So that's why I'm hoping you will, at some time, put up something so I can hear if there are any characteristics I can pick out compared to Luds, which I have a little experience with. I really need to play a set of Rogers for myself though to satisfy my curiosity. See what you did? Curse you Bo Eder! :)
 
I am slowly getting sucked into the vintage drum world, and Rogers are a real curiosity to me. Slingerlands too. Only because I have zero experience with them. And they were both around in my formative years. So that's why I'm hoping you will, at some time, put up something so I can hear if there are any characteristics I can pick out compared to Luds, which I have a little experience with. I really need to play a set of Rogers for myself though to satisfy my curiosity. See what you did? Curse you Bo Eder! :)

Sorry Larry - but I'm sure you don't mind ;)

Anyway - here's the kit with the new logo in full regale with cymbals as I'd use it. I tweaked it a bit more keeping my small tom a bit high and ringy and the floor tom a little above phatness. I will do a video soon and post, I hope you'll be impressed! Right now this kit is just fun to play!

And yes, getting used to a 22" bass drum is a little weird. I've been playing my 26" so much that it feels normal ;)
 

Attachments

  • with-logo-head.jpg
    with-logo-head.jpg
    49.7 KB · Views: 1,778
Last edited:
Like I said before,the nice thing about Rogers is you can buy a 45-35 year old kit today and they are ready to gig tomorrow.

I have read that the decline of Rogers was attributed to many things,but the start was when CBS bought them and fender out,I heard that shops could not get Rogers products because the the two companies were merged,and if a dealer had a big order of Fender products,and fender was backed up order wise, that CBS would not ship Rogers to the same dealer because an order was pending with Fender.That was the start of the Corporate mentality screwing up a couple of great companies.Quite a few cbs insiders also thought Rogers was sabotaged internally because guitars were much more profitable than Drums.

Gretsch and Ludwig survived the Japanese onslaught,I think if CBS wanted to they could have kept Rogers alive long enough to weather the storm,they sold it to Island Music in 1983 and Island just destroyed the Brand.

But anyway I am glad you like the kit and can see what a good brand they were.
 
Like I said before,the nice thing about Rogers is you can buy a 45-35 year old kit today and they are ready to gig tomorrow.

I have read that the decline of Rogers was attributed to many things,but the start was when CBS bought them and fender out,I heard that shops could not get Rogers products because the the two companies were merged,and if a dealer had a big order of Fender products,and fender was backed up order wise, that CBS would not ship Rogers to the same dealer because an order was pending with Fender.That was the start of the Corporate mentality screwing up a couple of great companies.Quite a few cbs insiders also thought Rogers was sabotaged internally because guitars were much more profitable than Drums.

Gretsch and Ludwig survived the Japanese onslaught,I think if CBS wanted to they could have kept Rogers alive long enough to weather the storm,they sold it to Island Music in 1983 and Island just destroyed the Brand.

But anyway I am glad you like the kit and can see what a good brand they were.

I guess the operative statement is "If CBS wanted to". But looking back at which companies stuck around and which went away, I guess it's a good thing this happens every now and again - it keeps the market fresh, and it makes us older folks pine for the good 'ol days. Although I've yet to hear some new adults pine for their old Pearl Exports, though ;)
 
It's a shame what happened to Rogers,and the last owner,YAMAHA,...put the last nail in that coffin.

Slingerland ,suffered a similar fate when Bud Slingerland Jr., sold the company in 1970.They continued to make excellent drums for a while,and were revived a few times,one time by Gretsch.Their drums like the resurected Radio King snare and Studio kings,were Keller shells because the Slingerland dies and molds were sold off.

The Ridgeland SC drums are excellent,if you can find them.

The last nail in that coffin was put in by Music Yo,and..of all companys ...GIBSON guitars the last owner,who know zero about making drums.

Steve B
 
Back
Top