The combination of all these sensory things (even the smell of the drum's interior) is inspiring in some weird way. Certain vintage wraps - some of which are no longer made - are visually interesting and capture an aesthetic unique to an era when rock n' roll meant so much more. Don't know if it's the aged wood shells, the cut and/or imperfections of the bearing edges, or whatever intangible mojo may be at work, but the warmth and character of vintage tone counts for a lot. Instruments that have been played sound better than those that haven't. So-vintage stuff-love the drums the hardware-eh. It's folded down on the kick, and the now resonant and lively tom that actually blends with the floor tom is on a snare stand. I have a rail mount on my Clubdate kit that not only is somewhat of a pain to use, but also choked the living daylights out of the mounted tom.
And, my experience with lighter duty vintage hardware is that it just doesn't hold up for me. While they're very cool looking stands, they don't compare in features and function to even the lower line Accent Custom hardware that I use on my Clubdate kit. It came with what was top-of-the-line for Ludwig at the time, the Hercules series. I was reminded of this when I made my most recent buy, the Classic kit. While I respect the desire of other drummers to keep a kit era correct in drums AND hardware, I'm much more interested in functionality. All of these kits are being used with current Ludwig hardware. I have one "modern" kit, a Ludwig Classic Birch, and three older kits-a 60's Clubdate, 70's Probeat and an 80's Classic. To me, a combination of vintage drums and modern hardware is pretty hard to beat. I just think it does a major disservice to ONLY discuss the pros of vintage drums without bringing to attention the cons. This isn't to bash vintage drums, I love old cars and I have some older drums, I love the vibe, soul, mojo, etc. Again, a novice to the vintage scene may not have the tools, materials or skills needed to perform those repairs/upgrades. If something breaks, YOU fix it (or pay someone else big bucks to). Although many here will debate this, there's no warranty on vintage stuff. If modern technology has improved one thing with drums, it's probably the hardware. Hardware on vintage kits may or may not be problematic. This won't be a problem to the experienced buyer, but could really burn a novice buyer who may not know better. With vintage *anything* becoming popular, many unscrupulous sellers & vendors will misrepresent or be outright fraudulent when selling vintage drums-fakes, for example. Matching add-ons may be difficult, impossible, or very expensive to find. Just look at the amount of work JR did recently to fix a dead-sounding vintage Ludwig tom whose shell had become delaminated recently, to get just a tip of the iceberg. Nobody seems to want to mention this, but just read this forum section and you'll get a good idea of the work that is involved in restoring non-mint "project" kits.
Significant repairs, knowledge, experience and work may be required to restore/fix/upgrade vintage drums. What you often don't hear are the cons, however. If your order is returned your certificate is no longer valid.Many people here will certainly mention the many pros of vintage drums, so I won't bother to.Activation of your certificate begins 15 days after you receive your order.Can be used toward the purchase of new drum gear.