Sizes that time forgot?

bermuda

bermuda

Drummerworld Pro Drummer - Administrator
Staff member
I know that a 14x22" kick hasn't been a common size since the '70s, but I didn't think it had disappeared.

I was looking for a kick bag and went into my local G.C. to check out their RoadRunner brand, which are pretty nice bags and not expensive. I can understand that the store might not stock the size, but the dept. manager couldn't find it at all in the catalog - I checked online and all of the kick bags are 18" deep! - but I was surprised that he hadn't even heard of that size before! Granted, he's probably about 1/3 my age, but is 14x22 somehow non-existent? I believe that most drum companies offer the size in kit configurations, you could probably even get SJC to make one! And therefore, shouldn't bag manufacturers offer a bag for that? (I know that Beato does!)

The funny thing is, I needed the bag for a 13/16/22 kit I bought new at that store a little over 10 years ago!

Any gear or sizes that were common at one time, but hard or impossible to find now?
 
I will re-phrase the question:

Any gear or sizes that were common at one time, but hard or impossible to find now?
 
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When I was shopping around for an SKB hardcase for my bass drum, they had 14” depth cases under the category of “matching bass drums.” 🤷‍♂️

I can only think of 11” toms as being a size that is no longer made, from Slingerland back in the day, and Tama at some point. 23” bass drums from DW were a thing for a minute, too. I don’t think either size was common, though.

28” bass drums were VERY common, though, in the 20s and 30s. The largest I see or hear about are 26” nowadays.
 
I find three different 14x22 bags on Sweetwaters site...

It does amaze me that with the power of the internet, there isn't a wider selection of things available. A year or so I tried finding someone that might sell a 3-pack of heads in the common roto-tom sizes, 6/8/10. No luck. Haven't tried that particular search since then, perhaps I'll give it another go
 
There were 17" tenor matching toms back in the day... all kinds of depths of bass drums. But those were not really kit components.
Power toms. Not common.
I've not seen those Roadrunner bags in various depths. I thought those were the lower end of acceptable bags... one size fits most? I grabbed a set on a MF stupid deal of the day for $100. Decent bags. .
 
I’d wager that retailers find it so expensive to carry inventory (up front cost, real estate, insurance) and the business world so dominated by lean/JIT/Toyota models, that the majority of the sizes they will carry are just whatever is fashionable within the last few years.
 
When it comes to cases, specifically, I can see where a manufacturer might cut costs by making the deepest depth in a given diameter, thinking those with shallower drums would be okay with the extra room.

We're not. 😉
 
Heck..id take the 18 depth in case (no pun intended) id need it. For me the extra depth creates a nice floppiness. Ya know?..id like a 19x23 for my 18x22..so I can flop it in the case and go. I'm a bit weary putting the soft case around my BD as if I'm wrapping my boy for school as in A Christmas story.
 
bermuda said:
I know that a 14x22" kick hasn't been a common size since the '70s, but I didn't think it had disappeared.

I was looking for a kick bag and went into my local G.C. to check out their RoadRunner brand, which are pretty nice bags and not expensive. I can understand that the store might not stock the size, but the dept. manager couldn't find it at all in the catalog - I checked online and all of the kick bags are 18" deep! - but I was surprised that he hadn't even heard of that size before!
Click to expand...
RoadRunner, while popular because of their price ..... they offer limited sizes. I'd consider them a budget drum case line, and because of that (much like entry level and mid-level drum sets) ..... you don't get a lot of size selection.

Looking at Protection Racket, I found a 20x14 ..... and a 22x14.

Humes & Berg offers a lot of sizes.
 
Bozozoid said:
Heck..id take the 18 depth in case (no pun intended) id need it. For me the extra depth creates a nice floppiness. Ya know?..id like a 19x23 for my 18x22..so I can flop it in the case and go. I'm a bit weary putting the soft case around my BD as if I'm wrapping my boy for school as in A Christmas story.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I dug around my storage unit and found a16x24 Beato. It's a bit floppy, but stands up on its own so it's easy to remove/insert the drum without wiggling it out/in. There's also a biggish rail consollette and the L-arm sticks out a bit past the hoop, so the extra depth accommodates that.

Less fiddling is a fair trade-off for the slight bagginess. And, I didn't have to spend an extra $99!
 
Bozozoid said:
Heck..id take the 18 depth in case (no pun intended) id need it. For me the extra depth creates a nice floppiness. Ya know?..id like a 19x23 for my 18x22..so I can flop it in the case and go. I'm a bit weary putting the soft case around my BD as if I'm wrapping my boy for school as in A Christmas story.
Click to expand...
An extra inch in each direction would probably be okay. Four extra inches in lengths is just gonna be sloppy and cause instability when I stack the drums. 😁
 
The two sizes that jump to mind are the already mentioned 11" toms.

And then there are 15" toms, which I rarely ever see anymore.

As for Roadrunner cases, they seem to a GC house brand, which means they likely offer only limited sizes to keep the manufacturing cost down.
 
bermuda said:
FWIW, I dug around my storage unit and found a16x24 Beato. It's a bit floppy, but stands up on its own so it's easy to remove/insert the drum without wiggling it out/in. There's also a biggish rail consollette and the L-arm sticks out a bit past the hoop, so the extra depth accommodates that.

Less fiddling is a fair trade-off for the slight bagginess. And, I didn't have to spend an extra $99!
Click to expand...
Sometimes ya gotta be a Marine..you adapt and overcome..carry on soldier.
 
Bozozoid said:
Heck..id take the 18 depth in case (no pun intended) id need it. For me the extra depth creates a nice floppiness. Ya know?..id like a 19x23 for my 18x22..so I can flop it in the case and go. I'm a bit weary putting the soft case around my BD as if I'm wrapping my boy for school as in A Christmas story.
Click to expand...
I use the deeper bag and put my Pork Pie throne top in with the bass drum.
 
bermuda said:
I know that a 14x22" kick hasn't been a common size since the '70s, but I didn't think it had disappeared.

I was looking for a kick bag and went into my local G.C. to check out their RoadRunner brand, which are pretty nice bags and not expensive. I can understand that the store might not stock the size, but the dept. manager couldn't find it at all in the catalog - I checked online and all of the kick bags are 18" deep! - but I was surprised that he hadn't even heard of that size before! Granted, he's probably about 1/3 my age, but is 14x22 somehow non-existent? I believe that most drum companies offer the size in kit configurations, you could probably even get SJC to make one! And therefore, shouldn't bag manufacturers offer a bag for that? (I know that Beato does!)

The funny thing is, I needed the bag for a 13/16/22 kit I bought new at that store a little over 10 years ago!

Any gear or sizes that were common at one time, but hard or impossible to find now?
Click to expand...
I gave your post an angry face because drum sizes, (or lack there of these days) are a hot button topic for me. I could talk about it all day and night and still need to vent more the next day! LOL! I was shopping for a new kit during the pandemic, and I literally couldn't get what I wanted and had to settle on something less (to me). Obviously I could have gone custom, but I was shopping for a kit in the $1-1.5K range, as I was planning on doing a bunch more dirty bar gigs and I was sick of bringing out my real babies.
Anyways, Road Runner cases are not great, even for the cheap price. I swore off those forever. Their keyboard bags are fine enough though I guess, but I'm only a fake keyboardist in my basement "studio". For drums, I'd avoid especially for someone who gigs everyday.
 
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