That Drum Catalog whose pages you wore out

Mustion

Senior Member
I think that the majority of us who got interested in drumming at a young age had that drum catalog that fed our adolescent daydreams and whose pages we wore out, thumbing through it incessantly.

I actually had two, representing the present and the past: one was a Tama catalog from either 95 or 96 where I spent many hours being amazed by what was the last gasp of power toms, as well as exotic things like gong drums, octobans, and suspended snare drum stands.

Then there was a Ludwig catalog from around 1971 that was my father's. Canister thrones, some weird kit with timbales instead of rack toms, simple hardware. Everything seemed so quaint by comparison but I really liked the vintage cool of it all too. Maybe that's why these days I'm more into older drums.
 
Growing up and learning drums in the '60s, I had catalogs from the classic companies: Ludwig, Rogers, Slingerland, Leedy, Camco, and probably Gretsch and Sonor. Most still had prices in them at the time, and some were partnered with Zildjian or Paiste, and sometimes their own line of cymbals made for them. These were serious "wish books" and I read every page and dreamed of having the coolest looking kits. In those days, each company just had 'drums', no series with different specs. Even when Ludwig introduced their 'budget' Standard series, they were the same shell and edges as their regular drums. We often selected a kit by its finish, and companies had some proprietary finishes, or were best-known for a certain finish. the satin flames were closely associated with Sonor and Gretsch for example, Onyx with Rogers, Ripples with Slingerland, and of course the Psych wraps with Ludwig.

I let a lot of catalogs go about 25 years ago... wish I hadn't. I've spent a lot of time and money re-assembling my Ludwig collection in particular (and going a bit further back in time than my originals as a kid,) and also a few classic Rogers, Gretsch, Sonor & Slingerland cats.

Funny, I don't have much literature from the Japanese companies. Some Pearl, but no Mapex, Tama or Yamaha.

Bermuda
 
I know it's maybe a little different to what you mean, but in the old pre-internet days when dinosaurs walked the earth, I got the Thoroughbred Music catalog every quarter. I used to pick those darn things apart looking at all the cool gear. Seems like that store, just like the dinosaurs, is no more.
 
Same here. Pre-internet, those were the only sources of drum lust available for those of us who lived in rural (very rural) areas. I wore out the Ludwig and Slingerland catalogs to the point that I had them taped together. The highlight of each year was writing to each company in January and begging for a catalog - which was promptly delivered. Even in the years when the new catalogs were just the same as the last, at least there were new pages to wear out.

I was a farmer then, but when I snagged a part-time winter job at a music store, I was in heaven. The store had years-worth of catalogs, and I dutifully grabbed them all and put them in binders. When we moved, I lost them all and haven't seen them since.

GeeDeeEmm
 
I had a Pearl Export and a Tama Rockstar catalogue from like 90. I would just stare at the monster 11 piece Rockstar kit for probably hours on end. Other than those, I had some music store flyers and the Sears Christmas Wish Book. For the uninitiated, it was like 600 pages of everything, but mostly toys. There were some drums and guitars in it too. Don't remember the brand, but it was some cheap stuff. I still wanted one!
 
1964_slingerland_1_th.jpg



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This is where it all began for my first pro kit. Still have this catalog filed away.
 

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1985 I had a Sonor brochure that I stared at every day until it hypmotized me and took all my money.
 
Here's my rarest/coolest catalog, The Chief's copy from his desk!
 

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during the 90's, I discovered drums with three catalogs :
The Tama 93, a Sonor 3000 catalogue, and Premier Rebound.
The Tama was full of twin bass drums, heavy duty hardware, Xdeep toms, hairy heavy metal drummers,... funny.
The Sonor one was much classier, 3 finishes, nice pictures.
I spent more time on this Premier catalogue :
Premier_rebound_3.jpg

Because there was a lot to read ! a lot of anecdotes, tips, info, news paper articles,...
Very informative.
 
Bermuda, what a treasure to keep! Not just for sentimental reasons but it's historic value.
 
Here's the Tama 1994 catalog I looked at over and over again b/c it had my Rockstar RS kit in it:

https://www.tama.com/usa/support/catalogs/19940101000004.html

Here is the Ludwig catalog I had. What's crazy is that a local pawn shop/music store was a Ludwig dealer for a very short while, and they had one of the kits on the cover of this catalog. It was the most amazing kit I had ever seen up to that point. However, instead of those RIMS mounts, they put those crazy, triangle-shaped mounts right on the shell. Ugh.

http://www.drumarchive.com/ludwig/1994_LUDWIG.pdf

If I had any more drum catalogs, I don't remember them. Since I grew up out in BFE, I never went to any music stores except for our local Bible Book (Crook?) Store which carried instruments.
 
Here's the Tama 1994 catalog I looked at over and over again b/c it had my Rockstar RS kit in it:

https://www.tama.com/usa/support/catalogs/19940101000004.html

Here is the Ludwig catalog I had. What's crazy is that a local pawn shop/music store was a Ludwig dealer for a very short while, and they had one of the kits on the cover of this catalog. It was the most amazing kit I had ever seen up to that point. However, instead of those RIMS mounts, they put those crazy, triangle-shaped mounts right on the shell. Ugh.

http://www.drumarchive.com/ludwig/1994_LUDWIG.pdf

If I had any more drum catalogs, I don't remember them. Since I grew up out in BFE, I never went to any music stores except for our local Bible Book (Crook?) Store which carried instruments.

Ah ah I still got those exact two catalogs !
I wore out the older millesime from Tama, which looks really dated now :

https://www.tama.com/usa/support/catalogs/19920101000000.html
 
This one came out in the last years of high school and I must've memorized every single page. (unlike my schoolwork).
 

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The only Tama gear I’ve ever owned are a pedal bought in around 1985 which I still have, and an SLP G Maple snare that I sold because it wasn’t for me.
But oh how I loved this catalogue. Check out the huge range of colours available in the Superstar range. All three.
 

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I've never owned a drum catalogue.

But some of those TAMA ones from the 80s/90s that I'm seeing on here are amazing. Big solid heavy drums with full lugs......oh!

And the artists are SOOOO young!

I love that promo photo of Dom Famularo back then.

Thanks for posting these........they make my day.
 
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