The Five Most Expensive Drum Kits?

Son of Vistalite Black

Well-known Member
Australia's Mixdown Magazine has published "Would You Pay $2.1 Million for a Drum Kit? We Look at the Five Most Expensive Ones."

Two things to consider: Australia's dollar is worth $1.45 U.S. and their water swirls down the drain in the opposite direction.

For those TLDRs out there, the highlights are:

Ringo's Ludwig Oyster Black set: $2.1 million.

Neil Peart's DW "Hockey Theme" kit from 2009: "Valued at $1.5 million."

Terry Bozzio's DW Black Page Kit: $1 million.

Roger Taylor's "News of the World" kit: $850,000.

Chad Smith RHCP Red Hot Kit: $300,000.

Get the deets at Mixdown: https://mixdownmag.com.au/features/gear-icons-studer-a800-tape-machine/
 
I'd imagine one of John Bonham's kits would go for a bit. I can think of only three in existence:
1) The Black Diamond Ludwig kit he did the first Zep tour on which Bob Plant still owns I think
2) Green Sparkle kit that is at his old home
3) Green Sparkle Jeff Ocheltree owns
 
my dream kits would be:

1. Gene Krupa's kit from his Benny Goodman days

2. Joe Morello's kit from the DBQ Time Out era

3. Neil Pearts first cherry red Tama kit from the Moving Pictures era

4. Scott Rockenfield's "chains" kit from the Warning/Rage For order era

alas, I will never have the money to own anything othr than pictures of them....
 
Two things to consider: Australia's dollar is worth $1.45 U.S. and their water swirls down the drain in the opposite direction.
In my home, one toilet flushes clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. Being located in southern Michigan, I'm pretty sure it doesn't straddle the equator. ;) I didn't check the wash basin drains though... :LOL:

FWIW, I couldn't give a rip about who owned what drum set. Celebrity/notoriety doesn't interest me in the least. Maybe I'm wired wrong? 🤪
 
In my home, one toilet flushes clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. Being located in southern Michigan, I'm pretty sure it doesn't straddle the equator. ;) I didn't check the wash basin drains though... :LOL:
I don't know...i have heard stories about Southern Michigan...Hell is there....and don't you guys have that Mystery Spot up near Macinac? The whole state is off-kilter :cool:

but damn, I wanna retire there...
 
oh and I guess Tommy Lees roller coaster in the air does not count as drums.....so that's out.
But..I imagine....quite expensive.
 
In my home, one toilet flushes clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. Being located in southern Michigan, I'm pretty sure it doesn't straddle the equator. ;) I didn't check the wash basin drains though... :LOL:

FWIW, I couldn't give a rip about who owned what drum set. Celebrity/notoriety doesn't interest me in the least. Maybe I'm wired wrong? 🤪
I am with you. I don't care about celebrity kits. I do like a nice looking set, but that has never been a show stopper. Sound is the main factor I look for in a drum set, followed by how easy it is for me to tune the drums. Kind of the same for cymbals and hardware. Don't care about the brand, I only care about the sound of the cymbal and the quality of the hardware.
 
I already have the one kit I want. Who had it before does not interest me at all. Peace and goodwill.
 
This one....always comes to my mind.View attachment 150863
Ringo bought this kit for Zak who still has it. I had lessons of Carl's brother Steve who told me some tales about this kit. It used to go through stages it was so heavy.

The shells were half inch thick stainless steel made by British Steel. I think they asked him if he wanted 1/4" or 1/2" thick shells and Carl asked what was the price difference and they said none. 70s excess at its finest!
 
I don't know...i have heard stories about Southern Michigan...Hell is there....and don't you guys have that Mystery Spot up near Macinac? The whole state is off-kilter :cool:

but damn, I wanna retire there...
Yep, strange place. Best as I know, it's the only place in the world where you can actually drive from Hell to Paradise in a little over 5 hours.

On the flip side, you can go from Blue Ball, PA to Climax, MI, but it's gonna take you more than 9 hours. :ROFLMAO:

Strange (not @Al Strange) fact: in the late 1990's we lived near Lansing, MI about 40 minutes away from Hell. I was driving my boys to visit a friend in Ann Arbor, MI and took the back roads thinking I could find Hell. Somehow we missed it. So, I've been to Paradise, but haven't yet found Hell.
 
my dream kits would be:

1. Gene Krupa's kit from his Benny Goodman days

2. Joe Morello's kit from the DBQ Time Out era

3. Neil Pearts first cherry red Tama kit from the Moving Pictures era

4. Scott Rockenfield's "chains" kit from the Warning/Rage For order era

alas, I will never have the money to own anything othr than pictures of them....
I think I remember seeing that chains kit for sale for some $7000 , He also used it in the Operation Mindcrime tour.
 
I think I remember seeing that chains kit for sale for some $7000 , He also used it in the Operation Mindcrime tour.

so I was in 7th grade when the EP came out, and I saw that drumset in the Queen Of The Ryche video, and immediately went out to the garage and found every chain I could, and {carefully} draped them all around my dads 55 Ludwig (which was the kit I grew up playing on). So funny to see that jazz set up with the chain treatment....I know i have some Polaroids of that in boxes in the basement

dad was a patient man.....
 
so I was in 7th grade when the EP came out, and I saw that drumset in the Queen Of The Ryche video, and immediately went out to the garage and found every chain I could, and {carefully} draped them all around my dads 55 Ludwig (which was the kit I grew up playing on). So funny to see that jazz set up with the chain treatment....I know i have some Polaroids of that in boxes in the basement

dad was a patient man.....
I knew of Queensryche at that time but I didn't actually listen to them until the Operation Mindcrime album (well CD at that time) came out. A friend of mine used to (he probably still does) have a record store, so we would go there and see what the latest rock and metal was at the time, but we had to be selective because our budget was limited (how much would you expect a 15 year old to make in Mexico), so if we didn't know of the band (by having listened to them) then we would hold off on buying the record (or CD), we also would buy concert tickets there, however we didn't for the Empire tour, we just traveled to El Paso TX ( a 3 hour trip from Chihuahua Mex), took a bus to the stadium and were going to buy the tickets with 20 min before the concert started... so we were expecting to get some shitty seats but we were ok with that. About a block away from the stadium this guy asked us if we wanted to buy tickets, I said "let me see them" he did, they were floor seats about 7 rows from the stage!, so of course I told my friends (who didn't speak English and didn't catch what was going on) to give me their money, I paid the guy and he left. My friends were still giving me the what's going on? look and I told them I just got us floor seats, literally 20 min before the concert started. The opener was Suicidal Tendencies (which I didn't like) but hey we got to see Queensryche play the entire Operation Mindcrime and some of the "new" songs. Great concert. Yes I always thought that kit looked so bad ass with all those chains. but I also liked Lars' kit. (Coincidently both white)
 

that actually is not the original one from the early 80's!!!! The original one had the cymbal stands actually made out of chains!! (and I don't think it was a Pearl...I think it was a Tama) That Pearl was the Promised Land tour kit, and possibly the next few albums beyond...so mid 90's

rockefldchain.jpg

and it was a Ludwig, not a Tama....

I always wondered how he got the chains to be rigid to hold up the cymbals....
 
I don't know anything about it. That was just the first thing a search came up with.

yep...wasn't calling you out, just getting the correct image out there
 
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