Slingerland best value for vintage drum sets?

[michaelg]

This is before and after I had a Ludwig tom edge recut, was a bugger to tune before and had little tuning range. The drum now sings and is super warm and punchy.

(I should add in fairness to Ludwig that the 13 had previously been recut by someone who obviously didn't know what they were doing)

And after

 

[dwludzild]

I love my one and only Slingerland kit. I have played both Ludwig and DW since 1978. My best friend got a 5ply natural kit for Christmas 78 and I was jealous because his kit sounded so good. To most my kit would not be very well liked. They are 3ply and 5ply mixed but the color matches pretty well. Someone played them this past weekend and said they were some of the best sounding drums he had ever played. He does not know all the terms 3ply and 5ply. He tunes them up and plays them. Something that is not done much these days.

 

[mfryed2112]

I have a 3 ply 70’s kit, around 74-75, 12,14,16,18,24, these drums were made right!!! The 14,18 & 24 were part of a bigger kit, a 7 piece. I sold the zildjians, the stands and bass drum pedal, the12,13,15 and snare , the 3 drums were free! I bought a 12 and 16 with a little profit, so I have next to nothing in a great kit. Definitely the best bang for the buck!

 

[JazzDrumGuy]

I am down to two Slingy kits - 12/14/16/20 in champagne and 12/14/18 in blue satin flame.....just super drums.

I prefer the bop kit over the larger one and have gigged it with no problem. We have an outdoor gig coming up in early April and it may come out again (the last gig was Feb. 2020 pre-Covid), but I also just assembled a 12/15/20 vintage Ludwig in Sky blue in March 2020 that's been waiting to be gigged so it's a tough call.......

 

[crash]

I’ve always found them to be underpriced compared to Ludwig Gretsch or Rogers. And equally nice or better! Never had a bad sounding set of them. My first set of them was in 1972!

 

[K.O.]

I remember when I was in eighth grade (1975) I would go to the high school band room after school for my drum set lessons (the high school band director had a doctorate in Percussion and taught all the drummers in our rural school district). That spring there was a drummer who was a senior in high school, Marty Frary, who had just taken delivery of a brand new Slingerland drum set from Franks Drum shop, and they were set up in the band room because he was going to play them along with the HS band at the spring concert.

They were an awesome sight, fresh out of the boxes...double bass drum 14N "Duet" outfit in gold sparkle. So sparkly and brand new with that liquid looking Slingerland chrome all over. I was already a Ludwig guy by then but this set had me rethinking things. If I had been in a position to buy a new set right then I think it would have been a Slingerland.

Marty was the big man on campus, his family was well off and he drove the coolest car, was a big sports star, dated the prettiest (by far) girl in school (later married her) and played in the best and most successful of the local rock groups. I did not actually know him, being 5 years behind in school, but his reputation was huge. For years, if you mentioned you were a drummer the question always came "are you as good as Marty Frary?" Probably not. I wonder whatever happened to those cool drums. He went off to college the next year and as far as I know left drumming behind. A few years later I ended up, at various times, working with all of his former bandmates from the rock group he had been in. I never asked how I compared...but I was able to hold onto the chair.

Not sure what ANY of this has to do with the topic at hand but it triggered this memory.