User:Rschuck/sandbox

Vintage Drum Collecting

Vintage drum collecting started in the 1980s with a hand full of aging drummers who saw the American drum companies strugeling to survive the influx of import drums. Many great companies like Rogers, who had lead the drum market with new innovations, were struggeled to compete and eventually lost the battle. By the mid 1980s, many US manufacturing companies were gone. Those who did survive were making far inferior drum sets than their 70s counterparts. Rogers closed it's doors after moving to California and making several attempts to import less expensive parts and manufacturing from foreign countries. Leedy, Slingerland, Kent, Camco and Ludwig all had either closed or sold out to competing companies.

With foreign manufacturing congomorates like Pearl and Yamaha taking over the market, US companies essentially became import companies - using inferior parts to buid their sets just to try to compete. The American made drum set was all but gone.

As well built kits from the 50s, 60s and 70s found their way into churches, basments and garage sales, a generation of percussionist saw an opportunity to buy great old drums at dirt cheap prices. The Vintage drum collecting hobby was born.