earplug2 Posted August 4, 2001 Share Posted August 4, 2001 Why are they so cheap? I'm a guitar player thinking about getting into drumming, and I wonder why one can buy, for example, a 60's ludwig kit for relatively little. Are drummers just more sensible than guitarists, or do drums lose their charm with age more so than other instruments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djarrett Posted August 4, 2001 Share Posted August 4, 2001 Hey, Earplug2: Welcome to MusicPlayer.com's Drum Talk. You raise a great and perplexing question. I have some freinds that collect electric guitars and I am blown away at the value placed on some of these instruments. Now, I have seen some relatively outstanding stellar prices on some vintage snare drums. But you are correct about a vintage early 60's Ludwig kit being priced from between $250 t0 $1200 depending on the condition. This type of price would make one of these sets a complete bargain! Anyone have any idea why guitars fetch such a hefty price compared to drums? DJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaddabout Posted August 4, 2001 Share Posted August 4, 2001 Guitarists are far more romantic about their instrument -- practically make love to those things. Guitarists are less likely to do much more than change the strings. Anything more complicated and they're off to some guitar guru who will charge $$$ to physically alter their instrument. Drummers? We beat the crap out our kits, toss them around, drill new holes, saw things in half, mix hardware ... if you were to buy a vintage kit, what's the likelihood you'd get it with original hardware? Not likely. Thus, they don't hold their value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidereal Posted August 4, 2001 Share Posted August 4, 2001 I sort of agree, I guess... I think the reason guitars generate a higher value is because of the rock star mentality connected to guitars. The legacy and history that comes with a guitar and it's player is much more profound than that of a drummer to his drums. I'd say guitars and guitarists are much more attached psychologically and emotionally than drummers and their drums. You don't see drummers sleeping with their snare drums. What drummers care about is sound and feel, not so much the external image stuff that goes along with it. All that external stuff (i.e. "attitude") is what boosts the value of a thing. Let's face it, to a guitarist, his guitar is his penis. To a drummer, his drums are his engine. This is just one guy's opinion. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif Just for the record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felix stein Posted August 4, 2001 Share Posted August 4, 2001 They lose their charm with me...I usually buy a completely new kit every 3 years. I have kept this yamaha midnight confetti kit for the longest I think because it looks so great under the lights...as for the sound? I should have never of bought it! No, it's ok. felix's band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaddabout Posted August 4, 2001 Share Posted August 4, 2001 Of course, drummers and cymbals live a far different existence. When I find a ride cymbal I like, it literally becomes a member of my family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Flier Posted August 4, 2001 Share Posted August 4, 2001 As both a guitarist/vintage guitar freak and a errrhhh... extreme drum aficionado, I think I can answer this one: most vintage guitars sound better than most new ones. Most vintage drums do not. Many vintage kits are in poor shape anyway because well, drummers beat the crap out of them if they are doing their job. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif But also the hardware technology has greatly improved over the years, and probably even the shell manufacturing. My Gretsch Broadkaster kit is a REISSUE of an old jazz kit, but it's obviously new. Nothing rattles, there are no weird harmonics, everything's solid. I've rarely ever found vintage drums that do that. Some drummers who own vintage kits are really good at maintaining them themselves - our drummer has taken great care of his old Slingerland kit which he's owned since he was 13 and it sounds great. But chances are good that if somebody is selling a vintage kit it's a piece of crap. There's a guy here in Atlanta who specializes in buying vintage drums for cheap and really fixing them up so they're in great playing shape. I'd buy stuff from him if I didn't already have a kit, but he ain't cheap. With guitars, on the other hand, most of the "improvements" they've tried to make over the past 30+ years have not really been improvements at all. The older simpler technologies worked better for guitars, and the craftsmanship was better in general. Also most guitars play better after they've been "broken in" which is really not the case with drums. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Old drum and hardware designs proved to be really fragile when rock drummers got hold of them, whereas old Les Pauls and Telecasters, et al, seem to hold up well under a lot of abuse. So there ARE good reasons why vintage guitars are a big deal and vintage drums not so much. --Lee This message has been edited by Lee Flier on 08-04-2001 at 12:41 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidereal Posted August 5, 2001 Share Posted August 5, 2001 Interesting... I must just take really good care of my drums then. I've had the same Premier birch kit for almost 10 years now and I swear it sounds better than when I got it. It's still in mint condition and has only needed minor hardware repairs. Just for the record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felix stein Posted August 6, 2001 Share Posted August 6, 2001 Lee, I don't believe vintage guitars are better than newer ones! Reverend GHL Anderson and a bunch of others that I am not qualified to talk about! Old strats suck, old Les Pauls look like hell unless they were babied. My guitar player is a great guitar man and you should here how he rants about those old clunkers. But he sells them because people want to own them. felix's band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidereal Posted August 6, 2001 Share Posted August 6, 2001 Good point Felix... GHL, Anderson, yes, yes... http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif btw, off topic, but am I the only drummer who rolls his eyes skyward when I see a guitarist pull out a Les Paul at a live gig? Those things are impossible to control live with so many overtones. You just know a guitarist is going to be too loud when he straps on a Les Paul. For recording, where you can control the sound (not to mention the volume) then they can be lovely guitars. But I hate them on stage. Just for the record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Flier Posted August 6, 2001 Share Posted August 6, 2001 Well, of course there is such a thing as a bad apple vintage guitar, and frankly I would LOVE to find a new guitar that I could feel as good about as any of mine, because 1) they will probably be cheaper and 2) I wouldn't be so heartbroken if anything happened to them. However, I've played a LOT of new guitars and I simply have never found any that rival the best vintage stuff. There IS a reason why the vintage guitars became "fashionable" in the first place. As for Les Pauls being too loud... it's the player, not the instrument. There is no reason why a Les Paul should be any louder than any other guitar. My Les Paul can have a very sweet tone - then again it's a 1952 model, with the original pickups. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif --Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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