Hey, im a vintage drum collector and a nice set of Camco drums to me is the holy grail of vintage drums. I am not lucky enough to own a set yet because of one big factor, PRICE! Camco's are innovative and stylish, along with sounding amazing, which made them very pricy back in the day. Not too many kits were sold, so theres not too many kits around today. The only reasonably priced camco kits on ebay were missing key things, like original lugs, badges, or were missing a drum to complete the set.
You can find late era camco sets but there not the same, Camco was split up, the name was sold to Tama with the hardware, and the lug design was sold to DW. If you get either a Tama Camco set of a DW Camco set, its not a Camco set, its just a tama or dw set with the camco name on it.
However, Ronn Dunnet of Dunnett drums has bought the George Way drum company name and brought back the drums. George Way is the Camco founder and sold the company, which is when they changed there name to Camco. Dunnett makes beautiful vintage style drums and I would trust him if you wanted a new camco style set.
His site is
http://www.waydrums.com/
If you have the money to buy a camco set, ebay is not the best place to buy. Drum shows will usally have the best set for the money. You will need to spend a lot for a set of camco's tho. And camco drums were only sold in small kits, both in drum size and number of drums in a kit. So you need to be willing to buy a 4 piece in small jazzier sizes.
If you are serious about buying a camco set, email me direct at
mattkinel@hotmail.com and ill keep an eye out for you. If you have any questions please ask, im a Ludwig guy but Rogers and Camco have a special place in my heart.
P.S. If your ok with a differnt brand of vintage drum, I would say go for Rogers. They have the same best of the best styling and shell design. The differnce in there styling, with the Rogers Swivomatic look and the camco Round Lug design. If you cant buy a camco but still want the best of the best GO ROGERS! There equally as nice looking and sounding but a lot cheaper.
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-Matt Kinel
Vintage Ludwig Stainless Steel Bonham Set
Paiste Giant Beats and 2002 Cymbals
Vintage Ludwig Hercules and Atlas Hardware
Speed King Pedal, Supraphonic Snare
Remo Heads, Coated
