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Thread: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

  1. #1

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    Default Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    Traded this 6.5x14" Ludwig Black Beauty:



    For this 1969 Zickos 4pc acrylic with cases:



    Here's the kit set up. Kick is 18x22", rack toms are twin 10x14". The floor tom is 18x18". It was a grueling 5 hour round trip through some rush hour traffic. Total mileage was 214 but well worth the drive. Haven't had time to play them yet.





  2. #2

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack







    Stock heads over 40 years old all the way around.


  3. #3

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    Wow what a nice score ,they are in beautiful condition they look new..I love 18" floors ,the sound of that one must be so deep

  4. #4

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    WOW! Why it's great to store drums in cases! They look fantastic!
    Congrats on the beautiful looking rare vintage kit! Nice addition to your collection late8!
    I just noticed, original to that kit, not your conventional hoops and they're all pulled with clip style looking lugs!
    Last edited by Olimpass; 08-25-2015 at 05:22 AM.

  5. #5

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    Congrats!!!! Looks in great shape, Clear acrylics look so nice. Won't you miss your Black Beauty.

  6. #6

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    Awesome trade, I love acrylic drums




    Jim
    Premier XPK Drums
    10, 12, 13, 14, 16 Suspended toms
    22 bass drum
    5 x 14 snare
    Premier Hardware
    Offset Double Pedal
    Sabian, Meniel cymbals
    Tama Metalworks 6.5 x 14" Black Nickel snare
    Ahead Drum Cases

  7. #7

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    I remember seeing that kit. Sac CL, right?

    I don't know anything about Zickos, but they sure look nice, Rich. Traded the BB, eh? Wow! You'll have to let us know how they sound. Congrats bud!
    Stolen from EddieV:
    Boom, ching, boom boom ching, fuggadugga fuggadugga fuggadugga crash. Rinse, Repeat ad-nauseum.

    Quote Originally Posted by drummer View Post
    Come on Mark. You steal copy. Just look at your signature.
    Quote Originally Posted by Texdrumr View Post
    Nothing says 'tough' like a drummer with ducklings on his drums. Ha!

  8. #8

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    Nice kit Rich.
    Found this info on Zickos drums

    This Zickos Plexiglas (acrylic) set is a rare example of the first ever commercially-produced plastic drum kits.

    Bill Zickos was a big band jazz drummer who owned a music store in Kansas City, USA, during the 1950s. Towards the end of the ’50s he started to experiment with making plastic drums, but it was 1969 before he got his first big name convert, Ron Bushy of Iron Butterfly.

    He soon got further orders and, although he patented the acrylic drums concept in 1970, it was not long before Ludwig and everyone else started to market their own plastic kits.

    Acrylic kits went out of fashion in the late 1970s and Zickos disappeared until Bill and his stepson John revived production from the late 1990s.

  9. #9

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    hmmmm..........I dunno.

  10. #10

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    WOW.................a 6.5 BB ?
    I'd keep the BB and give cash for the Zicks.
    Gretsch USA & Zildjian
    (What Else Would I Ever Need ?)


  11. #11

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    now that is a sweet swap!! Super jealous!

    And seeing my initials are ZZ any company name Zickos is awesome to me

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by myk View Post
    Wow what a nice score ,they are in beautiful condition they look new..I love 18" floors ,the sound of that one must be so deep
    Thanks myk! Here's the backstory. The guy I traded with claims he bought them from a drummer who bought them in '69 and played them for a bit and stored them in the cases for 30+ years. The guy I bought them from played them briefly and stored them away for another 10 years thinking he could flip them for a huge profit but listed the kit for $595 when he was ready to part with them but found no takers.

    I waited patiently and watched the drum section on my local CL for many days until I saw that he was willing to take trades, (my favorite kind of deal). I took off from work and jumped on it immediately. The shells look brand new. I couldn't see one scratch or any flaws in the shells. It took my breath away when I walked into the guy's living room and cast my eyes upon them for the first time. The blue heads give the clear shells a slight tinged of blue.


    Quote Originally Posted by Olimpass View Post
    WOW! Why it's great to store drums in cases! They look fantastic!
    Congrats on the beautiful looking rare vintage kit! Nice addition to your collection late8!
    I just noticed, original to that kit, not your conventional hoops and they're all pulled with clip style looking lugs!
    Thanks Olimpass! Good catgch on the hoops. This kit is the 1st generation that Zickos produced in '69. According to the guy I traded with, the hinged hoop claws were discontinued for the 2nd generation of Zicko acrylic kits that were produced in the '90s. This kit is completely stock with factory heads that were made by Evans. The plastic collars used on these heads to secure the plys together were exclusive to Zickos kits back in the late '60s. The drawback with these plastic collars is the amount of shrinkage that has occurred over the 40+ of storage and it's difficult to keep each drum in tune according to the previous owner.


    Quote Originally Posted by Spiderjig View Post
    Congrats!!!! Looks in great shape, Clear acrylics look so nice. Won't you miss your Black Beauty.
    Thanks Spiderjig! I had two Black Beauty snare drums and the 6.5x14" was my least favorite. The 5x14" BB shown here with the kit is my "go to brass".



    Quote Originally Posted by js218 View Post
    Awesome trade, I love acrylic drums

    Jim
    Thanks Jim!

    Quote Originally Posted by Markadiddle View Post
    I remember seeing that kit. Sac CL, right?

    I don't know anything about Zickos, but they sure look nice, Rich. Traded the BB, eh? Wow! You'll have to let us know how they sound. Congrats bud!
    Thanks Mark! Yep, ditched the BB. I had two and favor the 5x14" more than I did the 6.5x14". The kit was located in Redwood City. It took me 2.5 hours going one way via Hwy 99 S/I-5 S to I-205/580 W, I-238 S, I-880 S to 92 W San Mateo Br., to US 101 S to Redwood City (Whipple Ave). I left work just in time to hit the 205 at 3:30pm. If I would of waited until I got off work at 5:00pm, I would of been on the road for at least 8-10 hours, easy...
    Quote Originally Posted by Pearl MCX Man View Post
    Nice kit Rich.
    Found this info on Zickos drums

    This Zickos Plexiglas (acrylic) set is a rare example of the first ever commercially-produced plastic drum kits.

    Bill Zickos was a big band jazz drummer who owned a music store in Kansas City, USA, during the 1950s. Towards the end of the ’50s he started to experiment with making plastic drums, but it was 1969 before he got his first big name convert, Ron Bushy of Iron Butterfly.

    He soon got further orders and, although he patented the acrylic drums concept in 1970, it was not long before Ludwig and everyone else started to market their own plastic kits.

    Acrylic kits went out of fashion in the late 1970s and Zickos disappeared until Bill and his stepson John revived production from the late 1990s.
    Thanks Gilles for that information!! Saves me from researching further!!

    Quote Originally Posted by inthpktplayer View Post
    hmmmm..........I dunno.
    Had two BB's and seldom used the 6.5"x14". No brainer for me.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ricardo View Post
    WOW.................a 6.5 BB ?
    I'd keep the BB and give cash for the Zicks.
    Why? I had two BB's. Overkill...
    Quote Originally Posted by SpazApproved View Post
    now that is a sweet swap!! Super jealous!

    And seeing my initials are ZZ any company name Zickos is awesome to me
    Thanks Spaz! That's really cool about your company's name, ZZ. I just couldn't get the acrylics out of my head after I started this DW Design thread awhile back. Remember this? http://www.drumchat.com/showthread.p...ghlight=design

  13. #13

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    Oh I remember the thread... I still want a full acrylic kit sooooo bad. I have 3 acrylic snares but want a full kit.

    I'm super jealous! Great trade

  14. #14

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    Quote Originally Posted by SpazApproved View Post
    Oh I remember the thread... I still want a full acrylic kit sooooo bad. I have 3 acrylic snares but want a full kit.

    I'm super jealous! Great trade
    Thanks Spaz! I got my eye on a Pork Pie clear Pig Lite acrylic snare. It looks like it could be a match made in "acrylic heaven" Oink Oink?


  15. #15

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    The bass drum hoops look like huge triple flanged rack tom hoops and the kick weighs a ton.



    The nuts on the bass drum mount and rack tom holders fit the wrench I use for my '67 Ludwig rack tom holders and according to the guy I traded with, the bass drum spurs on the '69 kits were actually Ludwig's spurs that Zickos outsourced but were discontinued when Ludwig threatened to sue Zickos for using their spurs without permission.





  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by late8 View Post

    Thanks Mark! Yep, ditched the BB. I had two and favor the 5x14" more than I did the 6.5x14". The kit was located in Redwood City. It took me 2.5 hours going one way via Hwy 99 S/I-5 S to I-205/580 W, I-238 S, I-880 S to 92 W San Mateo Br., to US 101 S to Redwood City (Whipple Ave). I left work just in time to hit the 205 at 3:30pm. If I would of waited until I got off work at 5:00pm, I would of been on the road for at least 8-10 hours, easy...
    Thanks Gilles for that information!! Saves me from researching further!!
    You went all the down to Redwood City!? In rush hour!!?? That Bay area traffic is a killer. You're a braver man than I sir! Dang, that's a long haul!!

    Well, it looks like the trip was worth it. That's a great looking kit. Any plans to mount some LEDs in it?
    Stolen from EddieV:
    Boom, ching, boom boom ching, fuggadugga fuggadugga fuggadugga crash. Rinse, Repeat ad-nauseum.

    Quote Originally Posted by drummer View Post
    Come on Mark. You steal copy. Just look at your signature.
    Quote Originally Posted by Texdrumr View Post
    Nothing says 'tough' like a drummer with ducklings on his drums. Ha!

  17. #17

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    A BRIEF HISTORY OF CLEAR DRUMS

    By Jim DeRogatis

    "A former big band drummer and veteran tinkerer, Bill Zickos was searching for a better sound rather than a unique look when he made his first prototype drums from Plexiglass (a particular brand of clear plastic; “acrylic” is the generic name for the material). He followed the same method everyone used, and which still prevails today. The plastic is cut from huge sheets; heated (most manufacturers use pizza ovens, though Cream’s Ginger Baker is rumored to have made a set from Perspex warmed on the kitchen stove); shaped; bonded at the seams with adhesive, and finished by hand.

    It took a decade of on-again, off-again experiments for Zickos to perfect a drum with a strong, clean, and consistent tone, as well as a “dry” but cutting sound free from distracting overtones. But there was one problem: When he tested his see-through drums on small jazz combo gigs, the volume blew his fellow musicians off the bandstand. Thankfully, musical styles were changing. “We didn’t originally go after the rock drum market, but Bill found that the drums projected a lot better and had a lot more resonance and life than most other drums, and that was perfect for rock ’n’ roll,” says Zickos’ son-in-law, John Brazelton.

    In 1969, Zickos sold its first professional kit to Ron Bushy, the drummer with heavy-metal pioneers Iron Butterfly. Every night, as Bushy performed the epic drum solo from “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” his clear Zickos set reflected a rainbow of different colors from the stage lights, and musicians couldn’t help but take notice. Suddenly, drummers could be seen through the instrument that had formerly hidden 80 percent of their bodies.

    By the early ’70s, Zickos was selling more than 1,000 Plexiglass kits a year, but competitors soon emerged.

    Drummer Bob Grauso and plastics specialist John Morena formed their company in upstate New York in 1966, combining the words “vibes” and “Fiberglass” (the material they favored) to come up with the name Fibes. C.F. Martin Guitars bought the firm in 1970, and things really took off; among the more notable Crystalite players were Alan Dawson, Billy Cobham (who can be seen with a double-bass set on the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Spectrum album), and the great Buddy Rich, who endorsed other brands but favored a Fibes SFT snare.

    Then America’s biggest drum manufacturer burst onto the scene. Ludwig didn’t invent plastic drums, and many aficionados say the company didn’t do them best. But “Vistalite” became synonymous with “clear drums” the way the brand name “Kleenex” has come to mean “tissues.”

    Ludwig’s primary innovation was cosmetic. When Vistalites debuted in late 1972, they were available in clear as well as five colors: in order of popularity, blue, amber, red, yellow, and green. (White, black, and an opaque “smoke” were added later when green was dropped.) The drums were striking in appearance—the next step in flash and pizzazz after the sparkling psychedelic sets of the mid-’60s—but Ludwig kept upping the ante. In 1975, it introduced multi-colored Rainbow Vistalites (drummers could choose up to three colors alternating in one of six striped patterns), and in 1978 came a set with built-in Tivoli lights similar to those on Christmas trees.

    Some of the most famous drummers in the world endorsed Ludwig, and players such as Keith Moon, Max Roach, Carl Palmer, Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, Karen Carpenter, and Johnny Jackson of the Jackson Five could all be seen with Vistalite kits at various points in the ’70s. But no one did more to popularize them than Bonham, who switched from a maple Big Beat set to Vistalites for Zeppelin’s tours in 1973 and ’75.

    Bonham played an amber kit in 14 x 26, 10 x 14, 16 x 16, and 16 x 18 (he usually stuck with an alloy snare). “I remember those Vistalites with special affection,” Zep bassist John Paul Jones says, though he underscores the oft-stated observation that it wasn’t a particular instrument that gave Bonham his massive sound. “I saw Bonzo playing a tiny Ludwig kit that he had made for Jason when he was about 5 years old, and you still had to stand well back. Even the cases would sound good in his hands!”

    Nevertheless, the association with one of rock’s most powerful drummers sold many of the tens of thousands of Vistalite sets that Ludwig made in the ’70s. But the drums also had their critics. Among the charges leveled at Ludwig were that Vistalites were fragile and could shatter if dropped on a seam; that they were often out of round, and that the bearing edges were uneven. Given the sheer number of sets produced, it was inevitable that a few “lemons” would find their way to the market. But that’s all it takes to taint a product’s reputation—just ask Ford about the Pinto of the same era—and Zickos and Fibes complain that Vistalites gave acrylic drums a bad name.

    The other problem that contributed to acrylic’s decline was global in scale. A key ingredient in plastic is petroleum. In 1972, the price of crude oil was about $3 a barrel; by the end of ’74, it had quadrupled to $12 as a result of the Arab oil embargo employed after the Yom Kippur War. The impact to consumers was considerable.

    As quickly as acrylic drums had boomed, the market disappeared. Bill Zickos left the company he founded in 1971 after a dispute with investors, and it closed in the mid-’70s. Martin sold Fibes in 1979, and the new owners, the Corder Drum Company, stopped making Crystalites. Ludwig ceased production of Vistalites that same year. Plastic drums went from clear to invisible almost overnight.

  18. #18

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    That is one beautiful kit Rich. Congratulations on finding it. I wish I could find that sort of thing over here!

  19. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Markadiddle View Post
    You went all the down to Redwood City!? In rush hour!!?? That Bay area traffic is a killer. You're a braver man than I sir! Dang, that's a long haul!!

    Well, it looks like the trip was worth it. That's a great looking kit. Any plans to mount some LEDs in it?
    Thanks man...no LEDs. This kit is too "clean" to haul around. I may have made a few small scratches already by simply turning the wrench to close to the shell and catching the end of the wrench on the surface of one of the rack toms. I see a very small nick where I felt it hit.

  20. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dodeska View Post
    That is one beautiful kit Rich. Congratulations on finding it. I wish I could find that sort of thing over here!
    Thanks Dodeska!

  21. #21

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    I have to admit, I was so wowed by the kit, I never even noticed the blue heads.
    Love the stick saver type rims and even the chromed bass hoops! Beautiful.

  22. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by late8 View Post
    Thanks man...no LEDs. This kit is too "clean" to haul around. I may have made a few small scratches already by simply turning the wrench to close to the shell and catching the end of the wrench on the surface of one of the rack toms. I see a very small nick where I felt it hit.
    Bummer. I know the Ludwig Vistalite kit I had numerous years ago had a few scratches in the shells as well. I don't know of any good way to repair it either. I tried to buff them out and I made a couple of them worse. :(
    Stolen from EddieV:
    Boom, ching, boom boom ching, fuggadugga fuggadugga fuggadugga crash. Rinse, Repeat ad-nauseum.

    Quote Originally Posted by drummer View Post
    Come on Mark. You steal copy. Just look at your signature.
    Quote Originally Posted by Texdrumr View Post
    Nothing says 'tough' like a drummer with ducklings on his drums. Ha!

  23. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Olimpass View Post
    I have to admit, I was so wowed by the kit, I never even noticed the blue heads.
    Love the stick saver type rims and even the chromed bass hoops! Beautiful.
    Thanks again Olimpass!

  24. #24

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    I would hold on to them man cause they are Vintage and you can't argue that. Best deal you ever did on a kit. Congrats

  25. #25

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    Default Re: Another CL score- 1969 Zickos 4pc shell pack

    I bet you're one happy camper with both new (to you) kits! Beautiful drums! Love the angle of the tom mounts!
    Quote Originally Posted by rickthedrummer View Post
    There is intelligent life out there. The problem is that there isn't any here.

    -Mike

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