Every Drum Set I Have Ever Owned

ChrisCirino

Senior Member
I am sitting home recovering from surgery and this will make it very apparent how bored I actually am. This is a chronlogical presentation of every drum set I have ever owned. I did miss a Premier Signia set I had in the early 90's and a home-made Keller shell kit from a few years ago, but you'll get the idea. I started playing drums in 1978 at the age of 11 and I am now 42. I've dated them by their years of primary service. Some of the dates do overlap and I still play the Roland, DW and Gretsches. Fellow Drum Geeks, Enjoy.
 

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Cool. I can't remember all the specifics or exact dates, but my first kit was back in '78. Small Ludwig in black oyster. 20" kick, 12 and 14 I think. 5 or 5.5 maple snare. Basically a small Ringo kit before that was something special. Couple of Zildjians and some Camber cymbals.

That was back in Hawaii. Later on in the mid 80's after moving to CA, I got another one that was pretty similar. Same sizes. Sold that and somewhere around the early 90's I got a Pearl Session 16x20 kick and 10 x 12 tom. Found a 13" red Yamaha tom (which I sold to my buddy Randy Hayes who still uses it for small local gigs with the 10 and 20 from his Yamaha recording kit when he's not playing the big PorkPies he's endorsed with on the Coco Montoya gig). Soon changed out the 3 x 13 Remo picolo for a basic Ludwig 5.5 x 14 maple snare (which I still have). After I sold the 13 to Randy, I found a 12x14 Masters Custom which made me think about tearing the red wrap off the drums and refinishing them. While I was at it, I recut the bearing edges. I had talked to a drum teacher/session guy who did his and he explained it to me. Gene D'Amico's shop was about a mile away and I used to go in there and talk with him and watch while he hand finished his edges. The drums came out sounding great although very sensitive to being well tuned. But I couldn't seal the mahogany outer plys of the Sessions very well so they didn't look at that great.

Then I found a Masters Custom 18 x 22 and 10 x 12 used for cheap. The dark purple looked okay with the black side tom.

Pearl_Drum_Kit.JPG


I sold all this hodge podge off about 5 years ago and got a PDP CX kit. I also acquired the hammered brass PDP snare a bit before this and the Workshop 12"

CX_Front.jpg


Then about 4 months ago, I sold off the PDP's and got a Gretsch Renown maple.

GretschBkSm.jpg


Current cymbals with this are 14" Sabain AA hats, 14" A Custom fast Crash, 16" K dark crash, old 16" avidis crash, 8" Stagg crash and 20" K Custom dry ride.

I've recently added a 5 x 14 Gretsch Fullrange maple snare and I'm looking for a trashy ride (may pick up a Dream) and an 18" crash.
 
Only two to speak of...

1966 Rogers Holiday's Londoner configuration. Owned between 1973 and 2008

2008/2009 Ludwig Classic Maple...one large or two small kits....I can't seem to get away from WMP
 

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Only two to speak of...

1966 Rogers Holiday's Londoner configuration. Owned between 1973 and 2008

2008/2009 Ludwig Classic Maple...one large or two small kits....I can't seem to get away from WMP

Why did you sell that beautiful Rogers kit?

I've seen your Ludwig kits on here before and I love um. Ludwig is the only major brand I have never owned (well Pearl too) and I'm always wrestling with the idea of getting a Bonzo kit.
 
Why did you sell that beautiful Rogers kit?

I've seen your Ludwig kits on here before and I love um. Ludwig is the only major brand I have never owned (well Pearl too) and I'm always wrestling with the idea of getting a Bonzo kit.

I bought the Rogers kit when I was a poor 24 year old. The kit included pieces from two used Rogers kits that Roy Harte put together for me. Both kits were WMP, but the colors were slightly different and got more so over time. That always bugged me. Roy installed the double tom mount on the kick drum as part of the deal. Notice it is in the middle of the shell rather than near the reso head like factory installed mounts. He charged me about half of what a new kit was going for at the time (I paid $425 for all of the shells including the Dynasonic, while new kits were around $1000) . Then the 8x 12 went out of round and I had to install new heads using a hammer!. that really bugged me too....so after 35 years I decided it was time to buy a custom kit and have it built exactly the way I wanted it. Since the Rogers kit had a matching maple Dyna-sonic, I was able to pay for just about all of the Ludwig stuff with the money I got for the Rogers.

Personally, I think my Ludwig CMs sound alot like my old Rogers, but with all new hardware and state-of-the-art shells which probably will not go out of round.

The way I look at it is that I got to play a maple Dynasonic and a cool Rogers kit for 35 years and now I have a brand new, custom kit....all good stuff.

On the other hand, if I had the money I'd love to buy a Cleveland/Dayton Rogers kit with a matching maple Powertone snare just for the fun of it.

.
 
Wow, that's pretty cool. I wish I had shots of all my kits.

I echo that! Nice kits.

If you could only keep either your DW or your Gretsch kit, which would you keep if you only went by how good they sound? I'm saving for some USA Customs but I am also keep on DW.

Thanks

GJS
 
Nice! Those deep toms on the Sonor kit look like an aberration from the shallower toms you had on virtually every other kit - did you not like those deep toms?

just curious...
 
If you could only keep either your DW or your Gretsch kit, which would you keep if you only went by how good they sound? I'm saving for some USA Customs but I am also keep on DW.

Thanks

GJS

They do sound different, but not drastically, and I use them for different things. Right now, I'm playing mostly metal so it would have to got to the DWs, just a little more versatile. The Gretsches are more difficult to play, the die-cast hoops make it very difficult to hit the 8" tom. I do love them though and have resigned to keep that kit forever, as I refinished it myself (the 13" tom and bass drum anyway) and it supported me for nearly 20 years. I would love to own a new Gretsch USA Custom kit, but think that they are the most overpriced big name drum out there.
 
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Nice! Those deep toms on the Sonor kit look like an aberration from the shallower toms you had on virtually every other kit - did you not like those deep toms?

just curious...

I loved that kit and those "power toms" were all the rage circa 1984. I wanted nothing more than to be like Nicko McBrain back then. Believe it or not, I actually got them from a local drum shop in a trade for the Slingerlands. Sonor Phonic Plus drums were 9 ply Beech shells with massive hardware and only came in square sizes (Phonics were traditional sizes). They were the heaviest drums I have ever seen and the extra depth made them very difficult to position. They did however sound great and I would rank them #2 behind the Noble & Cooley's for their sound. They just became to much to schlep around, the bass drum alone weighed 50 lbs. I stumbled upon those "shallow" Gretsch toms in the back of that same drum shop in 1991 and have never looked back. They do what I need them to do and I don't really get the persistent argument on this forum about deep vs shallow toms.
 
I loved that kit and those "power toms" were all the rage circa 1984. I wanted nothing more than to be like Nicko McBrain back then. Believe it or not, I actually got them from a local drum shop in a trade for the Slingerlands. Sonor Phonic Plus drums were 9 ply Beech shells with massive hardware and only came in square sizes (Phonics were traditional sizes). They were the heaviest drums I have ever seen and the extra depth made them very difficult to position. They did however sound great and I would rank them #2 behind the Noble & Cooley's for their sound. They just became to much to schlep around, the bass drum alone weighed 50 lbs. I stumbled upon those "shallow" Gretsch toms in the back of that same drum shop in 1991 and have never looked back. They do what I need them to do and I don't really get the persistent argument on this forum about deep vs shallow toms.

Cool - and interesting that the two best sounding sets had the shallowest and deepest toms of the bunch respectively. I was wondering what it was like trying to set up those power toms over a 22" bass drum. It bugs me sometimes trying to get my fusion sized toms low enough over an 18" BD :p.

And it's funny how deep they look, sort of an optical illusion I guess that even though they're 'square', they look to be about 2" or 3" deeper than the diameter.

Yikes - a 50# bass drum! It must be bad if your hardware case is the lightest thing you've got to carry.
 
Cool - and interesting that the two best sounding sets had the shallowest and deepest toms of the bunch respectively. I was wondering what it was like trying to set up those power toms over a 22" bass drum. It bugs me sometimes trying to get my fusion sized toms low enough over an 18" BD :p.

And it's funny how deep they look, sort of an optical illusion I guess that even though they're 'square', they look to be about 2" or 3" deeper than the diameter.

Yikes - a 50# bass drum! It must be bad if your hardware case is the lightest thing you've got to carry.

Even back then, I generally only played the 8" and 10" toms up top because of how deep the 12" was and I could never really stomach a crazy angle ala Nicko or Lars. I attribute the unique and pleasing sound of these two kits to the shell construction and not necessarily their depths. The Sonor's were very thick beech shells with heavy hardware and strange dimensions. The floor tom was 15" in diameter and 17" deep. Somehow, it all worked, but perhaps I'm remembering them fondly because of the times when I played them. They did however have the best sounding bass drum I have ever heard. The Noble & Cooley's were a much different beast with very shallow one ply steam bent shells, much like Craviotto and Ford are now offering. They are the bench mark by which I judge all other drums. I stupidly sold them off for a very good price, but have missed them ever since. I later found out that N&C only produced around 20 of these kits (called Star Series) in the early 90's. They are not the same as the Keller based drums they now produce.

I always enjoy the word parsing on this site about what are the best drum materials, dimensions and hardware, but take it all with a grain of salt. I've had a bunch of different kits and they all sounded good during the time that I had them. I have always believed that nearly any kit with decent heads and proper tuning can sound great in the right hands.
 
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