08 APR 09

A day in April. Outside it's cold, windy... with snow flurrys. The landscape is shaded in browns and grays. It may just as well be November.
Not that I'm complaining... much. West of here, the other side of the Appalachians, there's blizzards and floods. Serious weather. What we have here is merely... April showers. I'm just so looking forward to warm sunshine and flowers. (Sigh)

I've been trying many different drums from many different manufacturers. Because I was out of the field for 27 years, when I started again I had no idea what was quality gear and what was not.
I began with a $200 purchase of a CB beginners kit. Took me all of one night to figure out that I wanted something better. I went on line, to e-Bay, and became immediately overwhelmed with information and choices. When I last played (and when I was growing up), names like Pearl and Paiste were generally considered to be crap. We trusted only the big four in U.S. drum companies: Ludwig, Slingerland, Gretch and Rogers. And for cymbals... there was only Zildjian.
In the intervening years there has been an explosion of drum companies and equipment manufacturers. There's Tama, Pearl (Now a quality product), Sonor, Mapex, Yamaha, DW, DD, etc. The old reliable American names have all been sold off and are now marketed as entry-level to intermediate instruments. The new lines of quality drums are all foreign made... with the exception of some small custom U.S. drum companies, such as Pork Pie, GMS, Ayotte etc. (And most of these seem to sell drums with shells made in Taiwan).
I needed something to anchor my playing hopes on... and I chose vintage Rogers drums. It was serendipity, pure and simple. A 3-piece Holiday Swivomatic set, in white marine pearl wrap, came up for auction and I got it cheaply. (The wrap was Ludwig WMP and applied badly.) After I'd won the bidding I went looking for information on just what I'd bought. I found a Rogers BB site (The Rogers Owners Forum) and a whole bunch of friendly people who were willing to educate me on the finer points of ownership of Rogers drums.


                                   Rogers Holiday in WMP (As purchased.)

                                                    -- Update: 2011 --

         

            Rogers Holiday, refurbished by Precision Drum, with a Rogers snare added,
                               presented to my granddaughter for her 13th birthday.
                 (Along with a Paiste ride and hi-hats, plus a Zildjian crash cymbal.)