Customer Reviews

Guide to Vintage Drums

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Disappointing coverage of the vintage drums due to all black and white photos.The author's own website currently has much better pictures in full color. I realize this book was done in 94,but there was still an availability of color pictures from old drum catalogs which are now collectors items in themselves. Thought alot of the history was sketchy and not nearly as detailed or complete as The Great American Drum Co's.by Canagy. Felt it was an amateur attempt to put an inferior book out on vintage drums.Illustrations were dark and overall quality was poor.Various books on individual drum co's are much better sources.(i.e.Rob Cook's books). May be worth a look at the bookstore but not a must have reference for your library! Surely the experts on vintage drums could collectively compile a much better and more informative and valuable book and price guide on this subject.Vintage drum magazines and articles will have to do till a better book comes along.

John Aldridge's book is a good introductory survey to the history of the drumset. There is a slight bias toward Ludwig Black Beauty snare drums that should be taken into account, but most readers should be able to identify with Mr. Aldridge's enthusiasm. Although it is only marginally helpful for collectors trying to identify a particular drum, this book is an essential foundation that should be the first addition to every enthusiast's library.

Expertly written. Aldridge really knows his stuff. This is the place for drummers to acquire a little background information about their vintage American sets - Rogers, Ludwig, Slingerland, Gretsch... Lots of fascinating info for collectors and dealers, too. The only gripe is about the quality of illustrations (too many blurred blck and white reproductions reduced to unreadability). How about more color in the next edition ?