Multiple Kit Owners, Show Your Favorite Kit

bobdadruma

Platinum Member
I got to thinking about What-if's?
This was one of them; What If I could only keep one of my kits?
Which one would I keep?

I thought for a long time and I did reach a tough decision.
I will tell you my answer as this thread progresses.

What are your answers to my What-If questions? Please explain how you reached your conclusion and of course show pics of your babies.
 
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Not sure how many people are in the enviable situation where they have multiple really nice kits like yourself... I have two kits, but one is a Stage Custom and the other one a Recording Custom, so my mind is made up very quickly..

If the question was you could only have one snare drum, that would make it hard...

Dutch
 
Tough call for me. My Pearl World Series kit is the first ( and only) brand new kit I purchased. I actually sold my car to pay for them. Still love the sound too. My Silver sparkle kit is a Ludwig 3-ply maple. It was my Brother in Laws kit (RIP) and has a lot of sentimental value to me. I restored them and its my current gigging kit. If I had to choose, I would keep the Luddies.
 

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Of four kits I own, three would be impossible to part with:

1. Tama Star bubinga 5 piece in dark green cordia.
2. Tama Starclassic Select bubinga 7-piece in marbled green metallic
3. Pearl Reference Pure 5-piece vintage tobacco burst

I suppose if a gun were held to my head, I'd keep the Star if I could only keep one. For production drums, these are as well crafted as you'll run across. Even the insides of the shells are gorgeous. Love the look and sound.
 

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Of four kits I own, three would be impossible to part with:

1. Tama Star bubinga 5 piece in dark green cordia.
2. Tama Starclassic Select bubinga 7-piece in marbled green metallic
3. Pearl Reference Pure 5-piece vintage tobacco burst

I suppose if a gun were held to my head, I'd keep the Star if I could only keep one. For production drums, these are as well crafted as you'll run across. Even the insides of the shells are gorgeous. Love the look and sound.

Inside of shell (can't figure out how to add multiple pics):
 

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No hesitation here. I'd ditch my Stage Customs and keep my Ludwigs. Then I'd search high and low to find a 12" tom and a 14" floor tom to match. I might even rewrap a 10" tom to build a shell bank.
 
As of now I have a 1963/64 Ludwig kit and a new Taye kit. I really thought that the Ludwig kit would be my last kit but you all know how that goes. The Ludwigs are 13, 16, 22. I bought the Taye in the 10, 12,14, 20 configuration. Well just today I received a 13 x 10 and a 16 x 16 floor tom for the Taye kit. I really love the sound of the Tayes and with the additional 13, 16 toms I think I have all of the bases covered. So I'm thinking about putting the Ludwigs on the market. For right now I'll post both kits because I don't have good pictures of the Taye kit. Thanks for looking. John
 

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It is very interesting to see how different drummers think on a subject like this. I was surprised by a few of your answers but your reasoning made sense when you explained.
Here are the pics of the kits that I had to choose from. I will post my choice near the end of this thread after some others have had a chance to chime in.
The kits in order are
1) Mapex Saturn Manhattan with matching snare. 18,12,14,14
2) 2012 Ludwig Clubdate SE with matching snare, (not Shown) 22,13,16,14
3) Late 60's Ludwig 6 piece with modern Black Beauty snare. 20,12,13,14,16,14
4) Early 50's Gretsch Broadkaster 3 ply with matching snare. 22,13,16,14
5) 65 Slingerland with matching Artist snare in rare 18,12,14,14 sizes.
 

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Bob, I'm thinking you'll keep the Gretsch. If i'm right can i have the Luddies?
 
The exact set of drums in this Jane Monheit video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjpQ2hoj6J0

Bought them from a (local) friend of the (formerly local) guy playing them. He had a champagne sparkle Ludwig set listed on ebay. I went over to see it (at his father's music store) and asked why it was for sale. He said a "touring drummer" friend of his moved from here (cheap real estate) to an apartment in NYC and had no room for all his sets and sold him 3 of them. I asked if one of them was a tiny silver sparkle Yamaha set (guessing who it was and having owned the DVD for a few years). He seemed stunned and said that they were in the drum lesson room just a few feet away. I said I'd buy them. He sold them. Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute, 10/13/18. It stays tucked in a corner of a studio where each of the 3 bands I'm in (piano trio, progish trio, rock/garage band) rotate to for practice. Can play it with all of them, tuning up or down (Evans G1). Beautiful sound, no muffling.

Other sets: Recording Custom black 10/12/14/20, Gretsch USA Custom Millennium Maple 10/12/14/18, Ludwig Classic Maple Vintage Black Oyster 12/14/20 + Jazz Festival snare (at place rock/garage band practices about twice a month -- play lots of Beatles). Recording Custom are at home. Kids have bands, gets lots of use. Sounds great. Gretsch are in hard cases. I used them in a jazz band with female vocal (not J. M.) that played out a lot and kept them stacked up ready to go. But quit a few months ago due to artistic differences. Should probably sell them.
 
We all seem to have that one kit that is like a special home cooked meal that you always look forward to eating.
It doesn't necessarily have to be the fanciest, or most expensive meal either. Although it could be depending on your personal taste.
I am gathering from your posts that most of you picked, "Comfort Food".
At least for me I found that the, "Comfort Food" emotion overruled all of my other thoughts in the end when I finally made my decision.
 
I have a Gretsch/Rogers frankenkit that I bought used in 1977 and a Yamaha Stage Custom kit that I bought in 2011. Thankfully, I don't deal with what ifs. I deal with what is. Neither kit is going anywhere soon.
 
My conclusion; My 65 Slingerland with the 18" BD.
The kit that I would keep if I could only have one and why I picked it.
This is my favorite sounding kit of all the kits that I own. It is the highest quality of all the vintage kits that I own. I love everything about the Artist snare. I love the Zoomatic strainer. The toms and bass drum have the richest warmest tone that I never get tired of hearing. The drums are almost true round and the bearing edges are excellent for the era. I have no problem finding heads to fit it which is rare for a mid 60's kit. The COB Stick Saver hoops are holding the chrome plating really well with no cracks or pitting after all these years. The chrome on the lugs is also excellent. The wrap and seams are like new.
I used dw hardware on the bass drum like dw offers as options on their jazz series kits and I love it. I also used a Ludwig Atlas tom mount as you can see. (great invention by Ludwig)
This is the kit that I set up and play if I am feeling depressed. The first kit that I owned was a late sixties Slingerland and playing this kit that I acquired last year brings back memories of times past. This kit is me. We are one. I melt into it sometimes and I lose all track of time and space.

Video http://youtu.be/X2NouYo8EU4?list=UUh7T_z7aZsnUZmj_RjNYoHA
 

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It's gotta be my '64 Downbeat. I gig it every once in a while on special occasions. Otherwise I rotate between the others based upon venue.
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...and the modern spin on a Hollywood set-up with Vibra-bands and rack mounted:
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Really nice black pearl kits, guys. My first kit was a MIJ stencil kit in black pearl, so I have a soft spot for that wrap.

I own a handful of nice kits and love them all. Saying which kit I would never sell is hard. Its like saying which of my children I like the best, which is a statement I can't make. The kit that defines me the most is my Yamaha RC kit. Mainly because I've been playing RC's for 32 years. I haven't owned this particular kit for 32 years; there have been several along the way. I've only been collecting for about 5 years. Prior to that, I usually only owned 1 kit at a time, And it was usually an RC kit.
 

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Right now, its the Ascent kit 8/10/12/14/16/22 in Iridium Diamond


F
 

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