I’ve always wondered when a drum makes the transition from being “used” to “vintage.” Is it after 20 years? 30 years? Do some drums never make that leap at all? Somebody help me out here.

if you find it in your attic-VINTAGE
if you find it at a yard sale-USED unless it came from that persons attic
if your grandfather gave it to you because he condensed his gear closet to one set-VINTAGE
if it was your dads old drum set-USED unless it came from your grandfather
for that matter, your grandfather-VINTAGE

Ha! Great description!

A valid word that now unfortunately is used to push the price up on old used equipment.

erniek - 21 November 2010 03:01 PM

A valid word that now unfortunately is used to push the price up on old used equipment.

That and the name “Bonham”

Let me clear this up a little bit. Vintage, Collectible, and Antique are terms that are misused a lot.
Collectible means: It’s something that people like collecting. Drums, Guitars, 57 Chevys. Whatever.
Vintage means: Collectors tell me to use the term with a year, as in “Vintage 1964.” Like with wine it’s vintage 1992 or whatever.
In common usage vintage means old, but not old enough to be an antique.
Antiques are generaly 75 to 100 years old depending on the product category. Furniture is not an antique until it’s at least 75 years old.
Personally I don’ think a fifty-year old drum from 1961 is an antique. It’s a vintage 1961 drum set.  A World War I drum—now that’s an antique.

Well, I’m not entirely sure that this would qualify as “vintage” but, to me, it kind of is. Its my Pearl 14x4 Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith copper/gold snare drum. Vintage to me because I bought it about 8 years ago and, still have it. I’ve been through a TON of snare drums over the years, looking for that one that stands out and no matter what I try, I always go back to my Pearl Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith 14x4 copper snare. Had Pearl Ref Series (both maple/birch and the 14x6.5 brass), Pearl brass and copper free floaters, solid maple snare drums and the Mapex Saturn (maple/walnut), various Pearl Sensitone snare drums and I can’t even remember what else. But, through it all, I have always kept that Pearl Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith 14x4 copper. Of course, I think, somewhere along the line I must have decided I’m liking metal snare drums more than wood snares. So be it.

Hi everyone. For me ‘vintage’ would refer to drums & cymbals that are old, & out of production. I have what I believe to be 2 ‘vintage’ pieces of gear. The 1st being a Rogers ‘Dyna-Sonic’ Snare. It’s a 14"x 5” & I love it. It was given to me by a friend that has been drumming professionaly for the last 34 years (almost as long as I’ve been alive)! The 2nd piece is an 18” Zildjian ‘Power Smash’, who’s sound I can only describe as a very loud & heavy rock crash w/ a bit of a china cymbal “trashy"sound mixed in! I don’t know when exactly Zildjian produced this model of cymbal, or when and/or why it was discontinued, but I love it. When I began playing in 1991, I used only Zildjians. In 2003 when I switched to Sabian, I sold the lion’s share of my Zildjians to help finance my cymbal switch. There were, however, a few that I couldn’t part w/—the 18” Power Smash being 1 of them. Another (albiet not ‘vintage’) is the 20” Oriental China Classical, which is 1 of my favorite chinas ever. I never understood why most drummers prefer the Oriental China Trash over the Oriental China Classical, but I digress.
If anyone can give me more info about the Zildjian Power Smash, I’d greatly appriciate it. I’m quite curious about when the cymbal was in production & mostly which drummers used it in their setups. The only 1 that I know of is Rick Moratta because there is a photo of him holding 1 in the 2011 Zildjian catalog.
Thanks & be well.