Fancy-pants Los Angeles-era CAMCO drum set.

I've been selling off a bunch of gear lately and this just sort of fell in my lap. One of the stained finishes, 13/16/18/22.

On one hand, these are supposed to be pretty dang classy and I don't think anyone is making drums like this currently with regards to the bearing edges/undersized shells. Those are also my ideal sizes, and they look realllllly clean.

On the other hand, are they actually worth it? Sharp lugs aside, these were (undersized) Keller shells.

Worth it, or drums for cork sniffers?

For what little it's worth: I did sound at a few DIY venues for a number of years, and the only band upon whom I went "Full Letterman" re: drums was the excellent Woolworm and their 70s Camcos. Truly a lovely-sounding (and, yes, -looking) kit.

I have an Oaklawn series in 12/14/20 in pink/champagne sparkle (and also that fixer-upper you saw w/ the Geo Way lugs). I like this kit but probably should get rid of it just because I like my standard-size ludwigs more and have little opportunity to play music where the the smaller kit would have the correct sound.

You seem to like trying things out and then selling them way more than I do (*cough cough* gear mountain), but for me selling things is a huge pain in the ass I never care to deal with.

I guess price would be the main determining factor on how to talk you out of it. If it's a sweet deal and you know you can at least break even on selling it, it's hard to talk you out of it. The only other thing I got is that they're weirdly heavy with weight. That's not really a huge issue for me personally but maybe might be a consideration. And it's not the die cast hoops/lugs I don't think? because I notice it most w/ the bass drum like "huh this is weirdly heavy with weight."

OH and sourcing parts for them is costly. You'd think since it's pretty much the same lugs as DW it wouldn't be, but DW is TERRIBLE GARBAGE about replacement parts. I HOPE DW SEES THIS THREAD! DW! SELL ME SOME LUGS! I HAVE SOME IRREPARABLE DIE CAST LUGS WHERE THE SLEEVE RIPPED THROUGH AND YOU XXXXERS WON'T SELL ME THE REPLACEMENTS YA JERKS!

The rule I'm following these days to much effect is wait a week and then reconsider. That tames my lust immensely. I've even been setting reminders on my phone.

Maurice wrote: Wed Jan 10, 2024 10:38 am

Maurice wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 5:27 pm

Maurice wrote: Fri Oct 20, 2023 10:34 am

Still waiting on the neck! The board was scheduled to be slotted last weekend. I had a few moments of crisis-of-confidence about the tuning, but running it through Scale Workshop showed me that it was a good neutral bridge between typical 12TET and 24-fret JI.

Here's the interval set in Scale Workshop. As a comparison, here's a simple 7-limit arrangement: see how the note distribution is sparser and less even.

Gonna check in with the neck guy about progress. I'm on the verge of ordering all new electronics, though: the loaded Squier body has these little micro-potentiometers. I've seen inconsistent documentation about potentiometer values on these; I'd expect 500ks, but Fender's own documentation says 250. I'm going to order 500s and just...like... wire it up new.

Neck guy had made the neck and slotted the board as of the 27th. Radio silence after that, so I emailed him yesterday, and he got back to me today: the neck is "super close" and should be done "in a few days," so it's possible I'd get it by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, I did order all new electronics, which I need to wire up to the Vintera pickups. With the neck possibly coming soon, I have motivation to carve out wiring time.

The week before New Year's, the luthier posted photos showing the slotted fretboard on the neck, but not yet fretted. I emailed about radius, and then a couple days later saw him post a video showing the radius. 12/29, a video showing it fretted. And now there's a photo of it with a nut, "ready to go," so we're closing in on it! (I've got to get back to wiring the body; there's a lot going on right now.)

EDIT: Here's the photo from the luthier; my neck's the rosewood fretboard on the right:

PayPal sent me a shipping update: the UPS label has been created, so I'm guessing I'll have it in hand next week.

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 9:38 am Fancy-pants Los Angeles-era CAMCO drum set.

Well, y'all FAILED to talk me out of it. Photos when they get here.

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:05 am

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 9:38 am Fancy-pants Los Angeles-era CAMCO drum set.

Well, y'all FAILED to talk me out of it. Photos when they get here.

I look forward to buying it from you in 6 months when you've succumbed to the next gear lust

Garth wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 11:40 am

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:05 am

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 9:38 am Fancy-pants Los Angeles-era CAMCO drum set.

Well, y'all FAILED to talk me out of it. Photos when they get here.

I look forward to buying it from you in 6 months when you've succumbed to the next gear lust

More like 3, if we're being honest...

This is two fold:

1. Talk me out of wiring a few guitars with the pickups direct to the output jack. I dime all of the pots on all my guitars and then adjust at the amps. I get really pissed when I'm futzing around with something only to find that a pick up had it's tone knob out of whack or a volume all the way down. Idea here is to remove unnecessary impediments. Can always go back if I want to right? I'd probably wire a kill switch because that seems like the only useful think I need on the front anyway.


2. Tell me the pickups you like and why - in my egc I have a super dist in the neck and the stock hot single coil in the bridge. I think I like this set up so far, but I'm curious about what i could do with the 2 humbuckers in my SG or Tele custom. The SG is stock epis and the tele is a squire with stock pups also. I like the way they both sound, but I like dicking with things too, so there you go.

Frankie99 wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2024 9:18 am This is two fold:

1. Talk me out of wiring a few guitars with the pickups direct to the output jack. I dime all of the pots on all my guitars and then adjust at the amps. I get really pissed when I'm futzing around with something only to find that a pick up had it's tone knob out of whack or a volume all the way down. Idea here is to remove unnecessary impediments. Can always go back if I want to right? I'd probably wire a kill switch because that seems like the only useful think I need on the front anyway.


2. Tell me the pickups you like and why - in my egc I have a super dist in the neck and the stock hot single coil in the bridge. I think I like this set up so far, but I'm curious about what i could do with the 2 humbuckers in my SG or Tele custom. The SG is stock epis and the tele is a squire with stock pups also. I like the way they both sound, but I like dicking with things too, so there you go.

Why not? You can always rewire back if you sell the guitar or decide it wasn't a good idea. I'm with you on it, I always dime all my knobs. I'm not technical enough to be able futz around with knobs to get the right tone of of my pedals, while I'm playing. That's for fancy-lads. Embrace the fact that you are a stone-cold caveman.

Frankie99 wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2024 9:18 am This is two fold:

1. Talk me out of wiring a few guitars with the pickups direct to the output jack. I dime all of the pots on all my guitars and then adjust at the amps. I get really pissed when I'm futzing around with something only to find that a pick up had it's tone knob out of whack or a volume all the way down. Idea here is to remove unnecessary impediments. Can always go back if I want to right? I'd probably wire a kill switch because that seems like the only useful think I need on the front anyway.

This can work fine BUT it will sound different than stock wiring with the knobs turned up. Looking at modern telecaster wiring, for example, with the knobs all the way up there is still a 250K resistance to ground (volume pot) and a 250K + 22nF resistor/cap to ground (tone pot). Youll end up with a brighter sound and higher output with those removed. Not bad things, just not the same thing. All that said you could artificially create the same circuit with two resistors and a cap and it would sound the same.