Why aren't Recording Customs popular today?

Ah, the drums that sorta defined the 80s before Drum Workshop took off. I had a set and they sounded wonderful. But I feared becoming a clone at the time ;)

Great drums. It's nice that they're still being made. If it was Tama, they would've been re-designed about seven times by now.

Yep, almost everyone on TV played them in the 80s. Then in the 90s it was DW. Peace and goodwill.
 
what do you call PDP? not saying all PDP's are crap they do made a really nice top end PDP but the bottom end is bottom of the barrel.

I call PDP.....um....Pacific Drums & Percussion

does PDP say Camco on it?

nope

and for the record PDP are quite nice drums
 
Yamaha lost my respect after the way they treated Peter Erskine.
 
DW never put out crap and slapped Camco on it

Rightly or wrongly,Yamaha aquired the Rogers name and patents in the Brooks Mays bankruptcy settlement,the same as you would win a watch that was in the kitty in a poker game.

Their take on it was to make Rogers into cheap import drums,and if it flew,fine if not....thats fine to.They weren't seeking to compete with themselves in the American,Canadian and European market especially in the UK,where Rogers were at one time, manufactured under license.English Rogers anyone?

As far as Camco,DW or Drum Workshop as it was known then,didn't want to compete with itself,so it absorbed everything good about Camco,and called it DW.The 5000 series pedal..was a Camco design..period.Shells(made by Keller) and those Turret lugs..were Camco.Shell specs except the bearing edge..were Camco.(To this day,I still don't understand why they changed that bearing edge,which made Camcos sound sooooooo good)

Tama on the other hand DID want to compete with itself in the American market,and used Camco like turret lugs,and the Camco logo on their Camco line of drums,which were assembled in Bethsalem PA.They also adopted the Camco pedal(Tama/Camco pedal).The problem was that for the most part,they were selling drums with the Camco name(Camco by Tama),using Japanese made birch shells,and some leftover Keller maple shells.

Drummers wanted that Camco sound they were getting from Jasper,and later Keller shelled Camcos,but the Tama made Camcos didn't produce that sound.

Tama in wanting to market American made drums to Americans,forgot how picky American Camco fans were about their beloved drums,and the name faded into obscurity.

As far as Slingerland,the name changed hands a few times( including being owned by Gretsch),as well as manufacturing facilities,and ended up in Ridgeland/Nashville.They were making a comeback and producing excellent USA made drums,but were aquired eventually by Gibson,who made the SAME mistake as Yamaha,and eventually the name was used on imported drums.

Gibson over the last few years has had serious offers to buy the Slingerland name,but won't sell.

The reason some of these drum companys faded into obscurity was bad management.Inability to compete with import drum prices,and last but not least,they were left in the dust when Tama,Pearl and Yamaha showed the world what a great set of drums and hardware looked like.They raised the bar in every area of drum manufacturing that there is,and only the strongest survived.

Steve B
 
These drums just aren't considered cool anymore, but I think they sound amazing. One of my pro friends has a kit. Drum marketing seems to overshadow quality these days. If you get a high end kit from practically any brand, you're going to have an awesome drum kit. I think it comes down to price and other superficial things.

With that said, I don't think Recording Customs are very competitive price wise, they're ridiculously expensive, and are basically the same drums from decades ago.
 
I heard of this rumor. Is it true he really just wanted light weight hardware and Yamaha wouldn't do it? I was tempted to ask the Yamaha folks at NAMM last year.

when I asked Peter he said there was much more to it than that and that he wasn't interested in getting into it because he is very happy with DW

he said this sitting behind a Craviotto kit that he had just purchased which I was filming him behind

on the video he starts singing....." I can't wait to see this on YouTube"

hahahaha

I'll show you the vid if you are interested ......I just promised him I would not make it public
 
Gadd put Recording Customs on the map. Hell, he put birch drums on the map. This was back in the early 80s, when drum sounds were different, though. Tastes in drum sounds have changed, so marketing these kits is probably harder than it used to be.
 
when I asked Peter he said there was much more to it than that and that he wasn't interested in getting into it because he is very happy with DW

he said this sitting behind a Craviotto kit that he had just purchased which I was filming him behind

on the video he starts singing....." I can't wait to see this on YouTube"

hahahaha

I'll show you the vid if you are interested ......I just promised him I would not make it public

I would enjoy this if you'd be willing to share it with me, Gvd.
 
Given the RC line had never been discontinued, while dozens of other lines have come and gone, I wouldn't say the RC isn't popular.

Perhaps not AS popular as they once were, but Yamaha wouldn't still make them if they didn't have buyers.

As for why not as popular, for that I would cite burn out and people tend to like the newest thing.

The 1st drum shop I worked at in the late 80's, we sold Yamaha RC's left and right. I really wanted one badly for a long time. But after selling so many of them, hearing them on so many records, etc, I just got burnt out on them. They no longer seemed special, because they were everywhere.

And to the general consumer, as we got into the 90's, there was a bit of backlash against the 80's. The Yamaha RC's were seen in pictures of Dave and Vinnie with their mullets. So many records RC's were used on were full of compression and reverb, and getting that big 80's sound. And while no fault of the drum themselves, people wanted away from that in the 90's. DWs were found on records with that drier less processed sound being played by people without mullets, and the general consumer jumped on that, even though processing and hair cuts have nothing to do with the drums themselves.

And because DW's were maple, everyone, Pearl, Tama and Yamaha, all started pushing maple drums as the new hip thing (never mind maple had been around prior to birch), and the birch kits sort of got pushed aside.

But while Pearl and Tama discontinued all their 80's lines, and most of their 90's lines came and went, the Yamaha RC never went away.
 
Gadd put Recording Customs on the map. Hell, he put birch drums on the map. This was back in the early 80s, when drum sounds were different, though. Tastes in drum sounds have changed, so marketing these kits is probably harder than it used to be.

Shallow toms, birch, 22 x 18, all black.... hmmm... metal drummers would eat these up if Yamaha marketed it at them. In fact, isn't Tama doing that exact thing now with the Silverstar line?
 
Shallow toms, birch, 22 x 18, all black.... hmmm... metal drummers would eat these up if Yamaha marketed it at them. In fact, isn't Tama doing that exact thing now with the Silverstar line?

Maybe so. I'm not a metal drummer so I won't pretend to know what the average metal drummer is looking for. But for loud music, birch seems like an unlikely choice. It's nice to have pre-EQd drums for recording, but RCs aren't known for projection.

But hey, you can market anything, I guess.
 
I'm not sure where the concept that Yamaha RC's are NOT the greatest for live use:

Tommy Aldridge rocked them live with WhiteSnake

attachment.php


tommyaldridge5.jpg
 
Maybe so. I'm not a metal drummer so I won't pretend to know what the average metal drummer is looking for. But for loud music, birch seems like an unlikely choice. It's nice to have pre-EQd drums for recording, but RCs aren't known for projection.

But hey, you can market anything, I guess.

Really a high-end ply kit is a high end ply kit. There's so many factors involved in their construction that affect the sound positively or negatively that it's really impossible to attribute it simply to the wood(s) used in the shell.
 
Last edited:
There was a time when RCs were the holy grail for me. I still love the drums. I wish Yammy would market them again.
 
Also, I think the reason they're not as popular today is a lot of people still have their original kits! I know a guy who used to play with a touring artist from my hometown (his name is Mike Maple... such a perfect drummer name!), with a red 80's RC whose serial numbers are in the 2000's. It still looks and sounds killer.
 
The Rogers name was acquired by Yamaha Music USA in the aftermath of the Brook Mays bankruptcy (Brook Mays had owned the Rogers name and had gone under owing Yamaha a sum that I have heard to be somewhere between $500k and $1M). Yamaha Japan told Yamaha USA to get the money back and the cheap-o Rogers badged drums was how they were doing it.

Brook Mays was at least using the old beaver tail lug hardware and making some quality drums

when they were acquired by Yamaha as part of the settlement Yamaha proceeded to produce complete crap and slap the Rogers name on it

so yeah I blame Yamaha

they could have kept the name alive and put out some really nice drums having the rights to one of the most respected names in drum manufacturing

but they chose to release complete crap

For god's sakes. Get over it. Roger's stopped being Roger's in the 80's . Brooks May's never produced a real Roger's product. Yamaha didn't hurt the Roger's name it was already dead and buried.
 
For god's sakes. Get over it. Roger's stopped being Roger's in the 80's . Brooks May's never produced a real Roger's product. Yamaha didn't hurt the Roger's name it was already dead and buried.


get over it?

as if I was upset about it in the first place



and for the record.....yeah they destroyed the Rogers name
 
Back
Top