Bo Eder
Platinum Member
that drummers tend to have NEW stuff? Open up any drum magazine, and all the drummers are so well-outfitted by their endorsees - it really is like NASCAR. They have the newest, best-ist stuff. And everything matches - most times everything is from the same company too, and if that company has come out with new stuff, you never see the artists playing anything from last years' catalogs, right?
Whereas I open up a guitar magazine, and vintage is good! There's a guy who's still playing his Fender P-Bass from 1954, or a Martin acoustic guitar from the turn of the century. Charlie Watts aside, isn't it amazing that drumming magazines are like modern car magazines: always pushing the new stuff. But other instruments revel in aging.
There were a few times I read in Modern Drummer about a drummer who has old stuff, and that's what he used all the time, or even players whose "frankenstein" kits were celebrated (David Garibaldi, in his first MD interview talked about how his bass drum was one brand, and his toms were another brand, and his snare was something else, but he loved it because they sounded great as a kit), but those were very few and far between. It's like a blackout - drummers will be sold on the new and shiny at all costs.
Of course, not everyone shares my view. There are players who play vintage drums, but they still tend to be backed by modern companies, like Steve Jordan and JR Robinson. Both are vintage proponents, but both are heavily supported by Yamaha and DW. I guess they get to live in both worlds. But for the most part, I open a Modern Drummer, I'm literally being told new and modern is right; this is the stuff you NEED.
So am I right? Or no?
Whereas I open up a guitar magazine, and vintage is good! There's a guy who's still playing his Fender P-Bass from 1954, or a Martin acoustic guitar from the turn of the century. Charlie Watts aside, isn't it amazing that drumming magazines are like modern car magazines: always pushing the new stuff. But other instruments revel in aging.
There were a few times I read in Modern Drummer about a drummer who has old stuff, and that's what he used all the time, or even players whose "frankenstein" kits were celebrated (David Garibaldi, in his first MD interview talked about how his bass drum was one brand, and his toms were another brand, and his snare was something else, but he loved it because they sounded great as a kit), but those were very few and far between. It's like a blackout - drummers will be sold on the new and shiny at all costs.
Of course, not everyone shares my view. There are players who play vintage drums, but they still tend to be backed by modern companies, like Steve Jordan and JR Robinson. Both are vintage proponents, but both are heavily supported by Yamaha and DW. I guess they get to live in both worlds. But for the most part, I open a Modern Drummer, I'm literally being told new and modern is right; this is the stuff you NEED.
So am I right? Or no?