“The stands are late ’60s I think, extremely light with a lovely, simple design. I found them on eBay, and it turned out someone else had some stands and pedals. The earlier ones, again like mine, are three-ply beech with reinforcing rings and rounded bearing edges. “The UK bass drums (like mine) were for some reason usually 12-lug instead of 16. “My Sonor is equivalent to the Chicago Star (K180) outfit marketed in the UK and also known as the New Beat,” continues Jeremy. The shell is six-ply, un-reinforced with a horizontal inner grain. Snare with parallel action mechanism and original 18 strand wires. The pointed lugs are so elongated that they have to be overlapped on both the snare drum and also on the small tom. The snare has a sophisticated parallel action with 18 steel wire ‘spirals’. Hoops are also one-piece, die-moulded steel, with the top flange turned in, not out. Legendary Sonor quality is already in evidence with the triple chrome-plated cast steel hardware and fittings, and machine-threaded bolts. The drums are finished in Wine Marble Stripe, a popular wrap in the UK. While the toms and bass drum have vertical inner plies and reinforcing rings, the six ply snare drum has a horizontal inner ply with no reinforcing. It also has a metal letter S pressed into it, which I haven’t seen anywhere else.” “And the 13-inch tom is stamped 210 inside (indicating the 10th month of 1962) and has the metal twin mallets logo, so is slightly older than the rest of the kit. “My bass drum is dated June 1963,” Jeremy reveals. Jeremy’s drums are all from the early or mid-’60s, when the oblong silver badge took over from the previous twin mallets logo. Little do they know it’s never been to the clubs of Liverpool or, despite its German origins, even Hamburg.” Prev of 6 Next Prev of 6 Next “I’ve always enjoyed playing the kit, and members of the audience often comment that it’s a nice looking ‘Beatles kit’. They were made on the same machines that Rimmel made wheel rims on for the bicycle industry, just turned the other way round!”
“The bass drum hoops also came from Rimmel. The lugs were provided by Rimmel Drums from Kempten (in Bavaria), but were made under their supervision in Taiwan. “The set was a reaction to Japanese drum sets, but was definitely assembled in Germany. He tells us that, although the Swinger was a budget series, “the shells were the same 6-ply beech used on Sonor’s expensive lines. Richard wondered if the kit might have been made in the Far East, so we asked German drum expert Fritz Steger for the lowdown.
Seventies tom mount works for both left and right-handed players.
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