fibes drums?

The Big Beat

Senior Member
Does any play/played these? What do they sound like,how durable are they, etc. etc.









Beat
 
I almost, almost, got a set of Fibes when I was living in Houston. They're made in Austin, I think. I was in a music store that had a little bop set of Fibes and I quite liked them. They weren't cheap, though.
To me they looked to be just as well-made as any high-end kit, but this was the only Fibes kit I ever saw. Natural maple, they were, nice-looking and sounding drums I thought.
 
They were Jasper shells in the old kits. The newer ones are Keller. Production has been stopped or the last few years. I talked to the owner at PASIC ans he said they were about to start production again.


They are great high end drums

http://www.fibesdrums.com/drums.htm


Call Tommy's Drum Shop in Austin, TX of you want details


Tommy's Drum Shop
1100 S 8th St
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 444-3786
 
I play Fibes. They're the best drums I've ever played. They can't be made to sound bad. Any head, any tuning, whatever you like, they'll do it.

My Fibes drums are the only drums I've ever owned that I absolutely will not ever sell!

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I play Fibes. They're the best drums I've ever played. They can't be made to sound bad. Any head, any tuning, whatever you like, they'll do it.

My Fibes drums are the only drums I've ever owned that I absolutely will not ever sell!

2600810831_5e959efb03.jpg

2600863987_623dab494a.jpg

That truly is one helluva of a good looking set, my friend! Congrats!!!
Is the snare drum the model with the SFT (I think that's its name) strainer system...assuming is a Fibes drum and not a Luddy Supra (can't tell by the photo)?

A friend of mine has a 70s vintage 5-piece dark brown (mahogany?) finished kit which includes a chrome plated snare drum (the same model that Buddy Rich played the most, or so I was told).
When I went to visit him at his home for the first time he excitedly showed it to me and took me but only a few minutes of playing with it to realize that his darn kit is something really special!
I've never seen one in person, but now have become a huge fan of Fibes drums, at least the vintage stuff. Told him to hold on to it...or even better: sell it to me; he's doing the former... :(

-elcid
 
That truly is one helluva of a good looking set, my friend! Congrats!!!
Is the snare drum the model with the SFT (I think that's its name) strainer system...assuming is a Fibes drum and not a Luddy Supra (can't tell by the photo)?

-elcid

Thanks! That's a Supra. I drift away from the Supra from time to time, but I always go back.
 
Thanks! That's a Supra. I drift away from the Supra from time to time, but I always go back.

Very nice Fibes kit! This one is mine, really its two drumsets put together. With these drums being rare to begin with and the current situation with Fibes being out of buisness, I couldnt resist to buy the second kit when I saw it in a local music store. These are all Austin era, the first kit was a 14x26, 16x16, 10x14, 6.5x14. the 2nd kit I bought has a 16x24, 16x16, 11x13, 12x14, 6.5x14. Unfortunatly I had to sell the 10x14 and 2nd snare drum to make back some money on the deal but still I'm left with an awesome drumset. They sound great, especially the kick drums! the snare is a suprise, too. Its acrylic as well, Not fibreglass, and its 6.5" deep with a clear Powerstroke batter head. sounds great no matter how you tune it and it has no muffler in it
 

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Very nice Fibes kit! This one is mine, really its two drumsets put together. With these drums being rare to begin with and the current situation with Fibes being out of business, I couldn't resist to buy the second kit when I saw it in a local music store. These are all Austin era, the first kit was a 14x26, 16x16, 10x14, 6.5x14. the 2nd kit I bought has a 16x24, 16x16, 11x13, 12x14, 6.5x14. Unfortunately I had to sell the 10x14 and 2nd snare drum to make back some money on the deal but still I'm left with an awesome drumset. They sound great, especially the kick drums! the snare is a surprise, too. Its acrylic as well, Not fibreglass, and its 6.5" deep with a clear Powerstroke batter head. sounds great no matter how you tune it and it has no muffler in it

That is a very sweet kit! I like the look and setup.

RIP Fibes.
 
Does any play/played these? What do they sound like,how durable are they, etc. etc.









Beat

Very durable. I have never seen an acrylic fibes shell that was cracked.. you cant say that about Ludwigs' vistalite stuff (the new ones are better though)
the shells, even though they are plastic, sound more like wood than you would think. there is only a slight brittle-ness to them but the volume and tone is great. I have heard even better stories about the 70's fiberglass drums from fibes.
As far as the wood shells go.. i have no experience, But the kits from Austin up until about 2005ish were built with Jasper maple/gum shells, which are the same supplier to gretsch, so you can imagine that they sound great.

I cleaned up my drums finally and I sold my 2nd 16" floortom after finding a matching 18", right now i have the kit set up with just one kick drum and one rack tom.. ala John Bonham - Buddy Rich. heres a clip i made on youtube to try and capture the drums' sound. my digicam doesnt pick up the sound very well, plus they are set up in a concrete walled basement, so this isnt a very good example of the sound of Fibes, but what the heck i was bored that day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUofT0zawng
 
Very cool drums! I dig those spurs too!

which spurs? the factory ones?

I see alot of people giving the fibes spurs a bad rap.. and i dunno why. I have two big fibes bassdrums and between the spurs and the spikes in my DW pedals, the drums have never moved at all and I beat the heck outta them. they are a super-simple design too which i think is cool. you just set them to the length you want and then they are removable for transporting the drum. they clip into these brackets on the bottom of the kickdrums so you dont lose them, too
 
I cleaned up my drums finally and I sold my 2nd 16" floortom after finding a matching 18", right now i have the kit set up with just one kick drum and one rack tom.. ala John Bonham - Buddy Rich. heres a clip i made on youtube to try and capture the drums' sound. my digicam doesnt pick up the sound very well, plus they are set up in a concrete walled basement, so this isnt a very good example of the sound of Fibes, but what the heck i was bored that day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUofT0zawng

great lookin kit
but your choice of heads seems to kill the tone (at least from the video) the 16 and 18 pretty much sound dead. but great drumming. I'd like to hear what they sound like miced.
 
Both sets shown in this thread are AWESOME!I am partial to the crystalites though.If any of you Fibes nuts out there know of an austin era 20X14 and or a 14X14 in clear crystalite let me know.I need both and it seems Tommy Robertson won't be making them anytime soon.I spoke with him recently and he said they would #1Have to fill existing orders before taking new ones,then#2 concentrate on wood shell production then#3start worrying about Crystalite.
He did assure me they will be back soon though..so i'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
great lookin kit
but your choice of heads seems to kill the tone (at least from the video) the 16 and 18 pretty much sound dead. but great drumming. I'd like to hear what they sound like miced.

no its definitly the camera and the room im in. these things have tone up the wazoo, I am using Evans Ec2 batters and single ply clears as resos. the kick sounds especially lame in the video, you really have to be in front of it to hear it right and the heads on the kick arent really what i want.. the reso has a hole in it thats wayyy to large, but 26" heads arent easy to find in the local music shops!

Im thinking of getting a white coated head for the snare. i wanted to keep the clear Ps3 cause the drums are clear, but i just dont like the feel of a snare with a head like this on it.. i like the texture of coated drumheads
 
My first kit was (and still is) an original Fibes four piece with fiberglass shells and a chrome over steel wrap that I got when I was ten. They sound great with the right heads and tuning, but the finish is so trashed after 23 years under my hands, and God only knows how long they were around before I got them, that I have pulled all of the hardware off and I'm looking to re-shell the kit with different sizes. I started with 9x13", 16x16" and a 14x22" (the 4th is my 5x14" Gretsch steel snare), but I might make a 7x8", 8x10", 10x13" and 18x18" bop kit by adding four tube lugs to the bottom of the kick and using the remaining 44 lugs to finish it off.

I thought about re-covering the shells, but that steel wrap is pretty stubborn and I don't want to mess up the tubs if I don't have to.
 
Fibes drums

First,I must say I have 4 Fibes kits,and I love them all in their own way...my main baby is my 8 piece Clear Acrylic,built out of 3 different sets,carefully restored my removing all hardware and sanding (YES,sanding) the pieces using 7 different grades of wet and dry sandpaper plus 3 separate liquid compounds to remove scratches,some pretty deep,which meant 10 steps times 2,since i had to do both sides,20 steps each(about six to eight hours for each shell) all hardware cleaned,hoops removed,sanded,painted,and new aluminum bands installed...2X 22,12,13,14 mounted,16,18 floor and an Austin Era Blue Acrylic Snare picked up in Hollywood...you might notice a similarity between this and Billy Cobham's set from Mahavishnu days,except for the 18 mikes he used!For the guy that is thinking of recovering his chrome set-my next project set is a set made up of former chrome pieces that were truly beaten to death,the bass drum was actually hit by a car!!All hardware was removed,missing or broken pieces replaced,chrome was removed,all the contact cement was removed using denatured alcohol,my new covering is actually decorative sheetmetal,and since it will be a 2X24,10,12,13,14 16 setup up,I had to order 2 4X8 sheets...the Company for the laminate is Pacific Crest,here is their Link
http://www.pacificcrestind.com/index.php/vmchk/SpectraMetal-Metal-Laminates/View-all-products.html As soon as it is complete,I will show you guys the set,but looking at the covering,its going to be gorgeous...
 

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