thin (within reason) maple shells should get you that sound. building up a kit from scratch is a good option, unless you're just dying to spend $2,000 on a new Gretch or Sonar kit or whatever. vintage drums.. i don't know shit about, but i'm sure Dontfeartheringo will guide you on that front.

Benny found an amazing article about wood and drum choices last week:Benny wrote:here's a good article about wood configurations and number of plies.I can't add anything to that about modern drums.HOWEVER, old Rogers drums and Ludwigs almost always sound good.The only catch is if they have gone out of round or if their bearing edges are battered.I am particularly fond of the tobacco sunburst Rogers drums from the early '70s:Adam from the band The Beggar Weeds had a set of these with a 24" kick drum back in the early '90s. I wanted them pretty bad.Scotty had a matching telecaster, as I recall. Good band, great gear... ANYWAY...Remember, m'sieur, that both companies kept making equipment well past their prime and into the '80s(Rogers) and present day (Ludwig). There's a lot of crap out there pretending to be good gear.A good sign to look for is whether or not the bass drum has wooden or metal hoops. The metal hoops are SOMETIMES a dead giveaway of offshore manufacture and therefore not topflight quality (with vintage drums. Modern Yamaha and Tama kits are mostly great.)There's a very long thread with lots of heated opinions about vintage drums buried in the archives of the tech room. I would search it out, but the forums are kind of crawling right now...

I strongly agree with dontfeartheringo.Rogers made many good drums for many years. The 8" snares, 24" bass drums and 12" toms are best of class. They had a stint there in the 80's where they kind of sucked, but overall, highly recommended. Even the late 70's, early 80's kits with the pole through the middle of the bass drum were pretty f'in good. Martin Atkins used em on Flowers of Romance. They also made kits out of Koa. I've never played one, but I bet they sound excellent and uniqueThe Rogers Holiday/Dayton series kits are f'in great. The color below is pretty expensive though.Don't get the late 1950's/early 1960's ones with the rounded lugs though- they crack very easily- very fragile.I've said it before on here, but Legend drums (made in the mid 1990's in the USA) were killer drums made of really high quality parts, including jasper maple keller shells, seriously heavy duty hardware, tough as nails finishes and they sing. I still see complete kits for well under $700 on eBay, Craigslisp and even one in Guitarded Center one time for $650. They sound very open and have an assload of girth to them. They have a vintage sound to them (more vintage than say, DW), but with a bit more attack and sustain- probably because the nearing edges are pretty sharp. Gretsch has incorporated Legend patents into new Gretsch designs, if that's any indication of what they sounded like, play a top of the line modern Gretsch kit.I played a Maryland Drum Company kit and it sounded sort of earthy and woody like a vintage kit . I've heard rumors they went out of business recently- if so, you'll probably see some models go for cheap on Ebay soon. Some of the designs were dog ugly, but overall seem pretty good.I'm hating on just about everything Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese with the exception of some of the Tama and Yamaha kits.

Hello !I 'd like to buy a new drum set...The drum i had before was a "yamaha birch custom absolute"The sound of birch is powerfull but dry and short...I'm looking now for a more open sound and thick sound, closer to old rogers/ludwig drums.I need some advices regarding the choice of the wood, some people told methat maple is a good choice for open sounding drums... What do you think ?I was wondering if it's smart to check old drums rogers/ludwig/slingerland ...What do you think ?Thank you

Thanks for your answer !No i'm not dying to spend 2000$ I have not a lot of money, and i see some interresting vintage drums on ebay for 500 to 800$ ...that's why i'm wondering about buying old set !Anybody can tell me good or bad things about Rogers / Ludwig 's old maple models...etc ?Thanks !

The Beggar Weeds! Very good band. I did some schoolin' in Gainesville from 1987 to 1990. Saw them a few times. Memories . . .

Smitty Yeagermanjensen wrote:The Beggar Weeds! Very good band. I did some Churchin' in Gainesville from 1987 to 1990. Saw them a few times. Memories . . .FYP.They're on MySpace, too!Trivia: I often saw them with Crowsdell, which was how I came to know the work of Shannon Wright.Listening to those Beggar Weeds tracks on MySpace right now.... damn that was a great band. They were doing an indie country thing before it became an cloying affectation.::Added::Here's that kit in action:

Thank you very much for these answers and the article is really interesting, I will continue to search and to get information and I'll let you know what I discovered when i will try some. But maple seems to be that what I want to go with!Thanks you !