The set that I looked at so many times as a teenager was now going into my basement. They were on the Tonight Show and on the Riverboat Casino in Vegas and pictured in the book, Mr. I Am the Band. Even Sammy Davis, Jr was pictured behind them at a rehearsal break.

I do not have the snare drum or stands pictured with the set. I own several as a matter of fact they were the drums we designed for Buddy that he rejected. One is a plain chrome plated steel shell with 10 lugs and extended snares. I also use a 5 ply, wooden 10 lug drum Tom Osborne built for Buddy that he didn't like. I have a story about that drum that I will talk about later. These drums are very sensitive, and flexible. Projection is never a problem as I have used the drums for rock dates. We used Buddy’s ear and opinions to guide us to guide us in building his drums. Then we felt more comfortable when we presented a new design for him, and followed that pattern for Louie Bellson, Phil Ehart, Nigel Olsson and others. Buddy Rich inspired us to try new things and made us stretch all the time as we explored new materials, and techniques to build better drums and equipment. He did not allow us to become complacent; something else I took away from him and never stopped using in my life.

The stands I use for the set are stands I designed. They have a narrower base spread than what was typical of that time. The original stands, if returned were probably used by Donny.

One crash cymbal was used in “Keep The Customer Satisfied” and the hi-hat cymbals were Buddy's as well. I was looking for a ride and liked the one on “Plays Plays Plays”. When I mentioned this to Lenny Di Muzio who was with Zildjian at that time he said “No problem pal” in his thick Boston accent and went into the Buddy stash and grabbed a ride and another crash. Lenny was always great fun and is an awesome man. I miss his stories. The 8 inch splash was Buddy's from about 1969 and has a tiny crack in it. It still sounds great.

The bass drum and toms are three ply with rock hard maple reinforcing hoops. I knew Jack Moritz who was the wood department manager at Slingerland, and asked him about the drums as he made the shells. At that time, Slingerland gave the interior of the 3 ply shells a light sanding, a hand scraping for extra debris that may have collected in their forming and then put the pearl finish on. Jack had another idea, took these shells to a lath, and then shaped the reinforcing hoops on the interior edge so there would not be any 90-degree corners. It was a very time consuming process but the results worth it because the drums are very sensitive and really project. The air and sound float around the interior hoops like air around an airplane wing.

Rather than spray the inside of the drums with that dull, flat clay colored paint widely used by Slingerland in the 60's these drums have several coats of a lacquer that has a banana oil base. If I open the drum up to replace the heads or if I take them out of a fiber case if they have been sitting in it for a while you can smell the banana. Oh yeah, another smell. In a short time, Slingerland realized that the drums should all be made this way and they designed a rotor that would shape the inside hoops (although not like mine) and use that same lacquer on all the drums.

So God did hear me back in grade school. It took about 5 years to answer the wayward prayer but He did answer it.