Blue Badge Beverley Drums, Vintage (early 1970s)

After playing my buddy's Rogers Holiday, I became determined to score a vintage kit of my own. After drooling over kits on American eBay for weeks and fretting over the risks and costs of shipping overseas, I decided it would be easier to find a kit locally, here in Europe where I'm living (Hungary, to be precise).

Pretty quickly I made the move on a rather obscure kit out of England called Beverley. Or as it is written on the blue badge: BeVeRLeY OF ENGLAND.

Before making a move I read dozens of posts about Beverley drums on various sites to convince myself that "Blue Badge Beverley" kits from the late 60's are professional kits. I read great comments about the supraphonic-like aluminum Beverley 21 (or Cosmic 21) snare, one of which was included in the local offering.

Here's the kit in a nice little track from my current band. It features the main kit without the 13, but with the Cosmic 21 snare. The 12" had a Renaissance Remo head, while the 16" a coated Ambassador.

So here's the word on my Blue Badge Beverley, after a couple of weeks in my possession. It was sold to me as a 1968 kit, though I have no way to prove that. UPDATE: This kit seems to be at least a 1974 kit. The oval-shaped "lokfast" tom mount seems to have only been introduced in the 70's:

These lasted until roughly 1974 when they were replaced by the more substantial ones (confusingly called Lokfast), which we’re probably all familiar with. These had an oval down-tube, knurled L-arms, and a massive cast receiver block on the bass. 

source: http://www.drummagazine.com/gear/print/the-rocky-history-of-premier-drums


Set-up and sizes
12 x 8, 13 x 9, 16 x 15 (yes, 16 x 15!), 22 x 14, with a 5 x 14 Cosmic 21 snare
The 13 actually has a stamp on the inside that says International Size. I consider that pretty cool!

Shells 

The drums are Premier 3-ply birch with beech re-rings. All, that is, except for the 12", which is a Premier mahogany shell with beech re-rings. Clearly they are matching drums, wrapped at the same time. Don't ask me how or why the 12 is mahogany, though it makes sense according to my research. That is, Premier started to move to mahogany around this time, so I guess somehow this kit got made with a mahogany 12". Go figure. Anyway, all of the shells are perfectly round with no signs of any problems whatsoever with the bearing edges.  The Cosmic 21 snare is aluminum (or aluminium, if you prefer).

Interestingly, the floor tom seems to have a sandwich layer of darker wood, presumably mahogany. I've yet to find info about Premier using a sandwich shell of birch-mahogany-birch, but you can clearly see a dark ply in this photo.

Update: Here's a link to a site that mentions a middle-ply of "darker wood" on Olympic (Premier) shells: http://www.vintageolympic.co.uk/faq.html#q2


Wrap 
The wrap itself might officially be known as Hairline Silver, but I'm not sure.

Update: A fellow VintageDrumForum user informs me that the name of this wrap is Silver Star.

Whatever it's called, it's certainly silver and textured and very cool (clearly a subjective view, though). I had read on one forum that Beverley kits had thin wrap. This is certainly what I would call a light wrap, or maybe soft is a better word. It's not a hard plastic wrap, but almost more of a fabric-like wrap. Instead of cracking, this wrap scratches like a thick industrial wallpaper, you might say. The wrap is a bit bubbled in a few places, mainly on the 12". But you have to look closely to notice.


Badges, Serial Numbers
My band mate noticed that at a certain angle you can see a serial number printed on the each blue badge. I'll have to write them down and post them here.


Chrome.

Probably the most surprising thing about the Beverley is the chrome. Even close-up there's hardly a spot on the chrome. On some sites I read that Beverley was first known for music stands, so I guess it makes sense that the chrome is top-notch. Even the Cosmic 21 is almost flawless, but I've seen some 21's in rough shape online.

Hoops/Rims
So far this is the weak spot. The hoops are rather light, and the 12" hoops are out-of-round where the drum seems to have been dropped. The 13" is also slightly dented. I think I read somewhere that these are 2.3mm hoops, but they are not as solid as the steel rims on my new Natal, for example.  I replaced the 12" with standard Gibraltar 2.3mm hoops and it's sounding fine. Update: I also changed the 13 and 16 just to keep everything the same. Naturally I've stored away the originals.

Lugs
Somewhere on a forum someone described Beverley lugs as "space age", and I'd have to say that's fair. We're talking Sputnik 1957 space age. The one practical problem I discovered with the otherwise stylish and well-chromed lugs is that they are positioned close to the hoop and have an upward pointing "tail" that makes it hard to finger-tighten the rods. In other words, my fingers don't fit in the space between the lug and the hoop. And it's not like I have fat fingers.

Tension rods
It seems Beverley drums always came with slotted-tension rods, and mine is no exception. The original rods are in excellent shape. I got a Sonor key, so I can manage alright.  Some guys suggest that the Sonor key is not ideal on English slotted rods, and I'd have to say I agree. The Sonor key works, but it's not a perfect fit.

Strainer on the 21
The strainer is a bit flawed. You have to pull the knob up a bit before pulling the lever, and sometimes it slips off during play. Not good. I need to spend some time debugging it, you might say. UPDATE: A little teflon lubricant fixed the strainer! Easy as that.

Tom mount
Originally I had trouble figuring out how to position two rack toms mounted on the kick, but with some suffering and experimentation I managed to figure out how to get the best out of the rather old fashioned hardware. I guess this is why Keith Moon preferred  Rogers Swiv-O-Matic to any of the mounting available out of the the UK at the time?

Sound... 
Fantastic! Watch the video and listen to "Raven Girl" and decide for yourself (see above).

Beverley in the USA
My research tells me that these kits were sold in the late 70's in the US as Premier Powerhouse 6500 and Premier Kicker 6400. Same as the Beverley kits from the same period, as far as I can tell, with some variation over time (kick spurs, for example).

• Premier Powerhouse 1975 from Vintage Drum Guide 
• Premier Kicker 1977 from Vintage Drum Guide 
• After the demise of the Beverley name, it seems the kits became marketed as Premier Projector (catalog ZIP from drumarchive.com)
• Projectors have Beverley kick-drum sized lugs on all drums, including toms (the lugs have one type of insert for kick and one for toms in order to allow proper spacing between rim/hoop and rod)
• The later Soundwave is not the same as Beverley

Playlist on YouTube
I started a playlist of videos featuring vintage Beverley drums.
Feel free to add to it!




Here's some random banging showing the toms with wide open medium tuning and the Cosmic tuned somewhat lower than I play it now (not intended as a solo).

Natal Aluminum Snare

Some quick comments on my Natal 5.5 x 14 aluminum snare.

• Solid build
• Nice matte finish
• Full bodied sound for a 5.5" drum

My buddy has a 6.5 Supra in the same practice space. Clearly the 6.5 has extra body and that typical Supra "crunch", but the Natal totally holds it's own. It's not a Supra clone, but it has that characteristic alu sound.

I used it for an unamplified gig the other day and it provided the perfect mixture of cutting high end with plenty of body. I actually chose it over my beloved George Way Indy Bronze for this gig. I can also note that it stayed in perfect tune together with the help of a few Gibraltar nylon lug locks.

I can also directly compare it to my 5" Beverley Cosmic 21. The Cosmic, like the Supra, has more of that crunchy sound, but lacks some of the roundness of the Natal. The Natal feels louder, you might say. I should really try to do a head-to-head comparison and post it to YouTube!

In short, it's a fine drum and a totally valid option for anyone looking for a solid aluminum snare.

Update: I just found this video. It's very important to note that the factory Aquarian (Taiwanese) head featured in the video is a beastly thick monster. I changed to an Evans HD Dry to get the sound I wanted. Compared to the drum in this video, mine is more open, with a much sharper crack. Just so you realize what a beast the head featured in this video really is, I put it on my 1982 Tama Imperialstar 6.5" and the Aquarian turned my ringy loud roaring steel drum into a tame super-dry puppy dog.  To put it another way, the Evans HD Dry is dry, but this factory Aquarian is far drier than any head I've heard. It really dampens the drum.

I'm not familiar with the standard Aquarian line, so I'm not sure which Aquarian USA-made head this Aquarian Taiwanese head is copying.  Again, it's a strange choice for a stock head by the folks at Natal. But whatever. Not a deal breaker by any means.

Rogers Holiday: The slippery road to becoming a vintage junkie

A few weeks ago we had a monster jam session with a handful of guitar players, two bassists, and three drummers playing on two kits. Just for kicks. One kit was the Ludwig Maple Classic mentioned in an earlier post. And the other was a Rogers Holiday that has set me down the path to becoming a vintage junkie. That's all it took - one jam session with a quality Dayton-era Rogers Holiday with a 22" kick and I became addicted to beavertail lugs and bread-and-butter and speckled paint versus smooth and Cleveland versus Dayton all that other wonderfully geeky stuff associated with Rogers Holiday. Yes, the kit was THAT good. Frankly, it blew the Ludwig out of the room. At least the kick.

So here's a summary:

• The kick absolutely blows away any other kick I've played recently. 
• It's got a clear Powerstroke 3 with no other muffling, and it just roars. 
• Open yet punchy. 
• Deep but with attack.  
• And the 14" depth makes it lively and easy to play compared to the trendier 18" depth kicks you'll find on most modern kits.
• The toms don't exactly sing. 
• Both the 13*9 with Coated Ambassabor and 16*16 with Coated Emperor have a short sound. They are not dead, but they are not lively. 
• Naturally other tunings could change their character, but I'm confident that a vintage Rogers is not the kit for someone looking for a lively sound with lots of high-end attack. 
• In a way the toms really remind me of my Pearl MHX, though my Pearl is somewhat more resonant, with more attack.

Yep, I still love Rogers Holiday!  Such a fine kit, fully deserving of its status as a legend.

I want a Holiday!
Holiday in the Sun?
Holiday in Waikiki?
Nope.
Rogers Holiday.
So fantastic!

Short Stack? Yes!

Perfect Positioning

I'm loving the short stack toms on my new Natal Maple kit. I'm a small guy (5' 7" / 170cm) and the short stack toms are like a dream. I'm thinking "why didn't I make this move earlier?" because I've simply never been more comfortable behind a drum kit. I'm able to get totally perfect positioning. If you're small, you might want to try short stack.


Sound sample. Rough mix, unmastered....

Natal Maple "US Fusion X" short stack kit - rough mix - unmastered by aaronburrconspiracy

But are they loud enough?

When I first unpacked the kit, I admit I was thinking "look at the eeny weeny little baby drums" (cutesy voice optional). But when I gave the ten inch a solid whack, my fears were put to rest. True these toms are not as loud as "normal" sized toms, that's almost certain. For example, when I put my 1983 Tama Imperialstar monster steel snare with the kit it does somewhat overpower the toms. But "not as loud" does not mean "not loud enough". During a very loud rehearsal the cute little toms came through with a nice punch that one of the guys called "focused", which I think is a perfect adjective in this case. 

The stock snare that came with the kit blends best in terms of volume, but I haven't made really found a characteristic sound for it yet. It's my first 5.5" maple snare, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it. More on that in another post.

In early August we'll head into the studio, so soon I'll be able to post some audio samples. Stay tuned.... errr... update: see above!

It's not the cost that counts...

Quite a few years ago I went to school with a fine drummer named Jeep MacNichol. Jeep is perhaps best know for his work with The Samples, but nowadays he's doing his own thing as Mr. Anonymous. I hit Jeep up for some info on his gear, and he came back to me with some surprises.

His words reinforce the old truth that good sounds aren't made by drums alone, but rather by drummers with chops who are recorded properly. It's not the cost of the kit that counts, but the skill and knowledge that goes into playing it and recording it. Here's what Mr. Anonymous has to say about the drums and recording technique used on his new album, Champion Sound:

I purchased a used Gretsch Catalina kit on ebay ... 18" kick, 14" floor, 12" tom, 14"x 5 1/2 " snare. We recorded the kit with just 3 mics and modeled the micing EXACTLY like Rudy Van Gelder used to track the drummers on all the blue note albums in the 50's and 60's. He had a great approach for capturing the sound because in working with a lot of those drummers, he wanted to capture the sound as a single instrument. He was quoted as saying something like "...a jazz drummer thinks of his kit as a single instrument and sound rather than the individual elements like the hi-hat and the snare and the tom, etc...and my job is to capture their intent and what they want to say on the instrument as a whole rather than separating the sounds of the individual parts of the kit."

So we put one mic pointing between the hat and snare, one mic about 4 feet in front of the kit pointing directly at the drummer's chest, and one mic about a foot in front of the kick...we also had one overhead pointing directly down on the kit...and all the mics were ribbon mics and mixed through an analog board and slammed with compression.

So check these tracks and tell me that you ever would have thought this was a simple Catalina Gretsch! 

Some fills at the top of this track show what the kit - and Mr Anonymous - can do.



And this one has some particularly nice action around 2:30.





Here's the humble kit.

Listen to more tracks here.

And I'm throwing this in since it's pretty cool. 

In response to It's not the cost that counts..., my friend and super-microphone-geek Eszter pointed out that the ribbon mics used by Mr Anonymous to create such a fine drum sound from a simple Gretsch Catalina kit were probably much more expensive than the kit itself. And she pointed out that you need quality pre-amps and other generally expensive gear to make fine recordings.

So I leave the question open: Does cost count? Can you make inexpensive drums sound good without expensive mics and recording gear?  If you save on the drums, do you need to make up for it with quality mics and other gear? 

This is all getting very geeky.  I'm starting to scare myself.

Ludwig Classic Maple? As good as they say?

My friend Bali is a much bigger drum geek than I am. You can tell by his gear. Dig this. He's got a Ludwig Classic Maple in Silver Sparkle with 13x9, 16x16, 18x16, 22x14.  He tells me it's from early 2000s. He's also got a 14*6.5 Supraphonic snare.  Not bad for a kid from Budapest.

How does she sound? Pretty fine!
Check out this demo video we made or check it out on this fine track from The Walrus, featuring Noel R Mayer on vocals and Balázs on his fine Ludwig drums with Ambassadors on top and bottom . 




This is a great song if you are into classic Anglo-American rock sounds. Maybe one of the better songs you've never heard. And now you know all about the drums.  And you are happier because of it.

My Buddy's Tama Starclassic Maple

I share a practice space with a great drummer here in Budapest named Bence Bátor.  Bence plays a mid-2000's Tama Starclassic Maple.  Every so often I get to use his kit, and I gotta tell you, I just love it.  It's a standard 10*8, 12*9, 16*14 set-up.  What I love about these drums is that you don't have to hit hard at all, and POW, they just come alive. He just fit the kit with Vintage Emperors, and man, it's just a joy to play. I love my Pearl MHX, but you really have to whack it to get the life out of it. Not the Starclassic Maple. It's a much livelier play.

You can hear Bence and his kit on these tracks.  Some really great sounds on some fine tracks.


On this next one the drums are dampened quite a bit to create a "certain" sound that works quite well even if it doesn't illustrate how well the drums resonate.



He also has an 8 inch deep Tama Bubinga snare which is certainly one of the finest drums I've ever played. I'm pretty sure he's playing it with an Evans HD Dry on the tracks above. Top stuff.

Here's a video I made of his kit using my Tama Mastercraft (Imperialstar) snare from 1983