Over the years I played several old Sonor sets and recorded them.
I’m not a professional drummer and neither a professional sound guy,
I recorded most with a Zoom Q3 camera. With headphones you’ll get a nice idea of the sound of these vintage drums.
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Soundsample of a Sonor marching drum made before 1906 as Sonor was known as “Die erste Trommelfabrik Weissenfels”. I put 2 lttle cymbal felts on the drum because otherwise the sound is much to metallic. Enjoy 3 minutes of” old school” drum figures.
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Hilarious free style version of the big band song Sing Sing on my Sonor Amateur set 1937. Watch that cymbal swinging. Hitting it is like winning the lottery. Played along with some speaker boxes, so not for the sound quality, or exact timing, but just for fun. 🙂
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This is more or less the drumstyle of the 40tties and early 50ties that’s played on this 1952 Sonor Jazzset. with Sonor Perceo snaredrum. All Original incl. the calfheads on all drums. It’s hard to play these sets as ergonomics weren’t invented yet an everything rattles and shakes around. Very less of the equipment is adjustable, so you have to play on this set as it is.
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Same drumset Amateur 1952, now played with brushes.
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I’m playing on a 1952 Sonor Jazzset with on the background techno beat music, to show that it also can be used for more modern music after 60 years. It’s really difficult to play these sets because everything rattles and almost nothing is adjustable. Ergonomics weren’t invented at that time.
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Here you find some different soundsamples/rhythms played on a old Sonor set. The bass-tom and snare are from 1952. The trapset-cymbals-lowhat and chinese tom are from the 1930ties. Playing these kind of drumsets is totally different compared to modern sets. Ergonomics weren’t invented, so a lot of things are hard to hit in a normal way. Also a lot of the gear wackles and to hit the crashcymbal, it’s like playing the lottery. Have fun browsing through the different parts of this video. Feel free to give some comments.
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Sonor teardrop set 1952 olive badge gold sparkle. All calfheads. Bassdrum 64 cm. Recorded with 1 microphone, so bass doesn’t sound as fat as in the real world.
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This 1957 Sonor teardrop set was purchased from the first owner ! !
It looks incredible and sounds very good.
All calfskin heads.
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This is a video that shows my Sonor teardrop set from 1954 in action. All the original calfheads are still on, so this is actually the sound as it was back in 1954. This set has special rims as the clips are attached to the rim with little srews from inside out. The ride cymbal is a 20″ Tyrko (made for Sonor). The hihats are very thin 10″ with the Sonor script logo pressed in them.
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This movie shows how Sonor’s first double footpedal (1927) works and sounds. Both your legs are on the right side of the snare drum. Your feet are close together and it feels very strange. Your posture is not really comfartable and it certainly is not ergonomic. The speed you can reach with pedal is not bad at all. Hats off to the drummers of the past.The Sonor drum kit dates from the early fifties and is equipped with calfskin heads. EDIT: I always believed this was build as a double footpedal as Sonor stated this in a few of their 2000 catalogs. Since I layed my hands on some pré WW2 catalogs it became clear that the second pedal was meant to operate the cymbal that was mounted on the bassdrum in the early days of the drumset. Never te less it was fun and interesting to make this video.
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This video gives an impression of the soundspectrum of a Sonor teardrop set from the mid 60ties.
Taped with a simpel video cam, so a lot of distortion. Bass 20″- Tom 13″- floortom 16″, – snare D-422 14 . Original hardware, that still works fine. Cymbals: hi-hat Meinl Romen 70 14″- Crash Meinl Romen 70 16″- Ride Zyn 18″ with sizzles – Ride Tyrko-Sonor 20″.
================================================================Sound sample of a very rare Sonor Champion stainless steel, 1975. Sizes: 22-13-14-16, with a Sonor Swinger (wooden) snare. In this soundsample the drumset is tuned high. Cymbals: Sonor Tyrko ride 52 cm., Sonor Tyrko crash 41 cm.
================================================================ Sound sample of a very rare Sonor Champion stainless steel, 1975. Sizes: 22-13-14-16, with a Sonor Swinger (wooden) snare. In this soundsample the drumset is tuned low. Cymbals: Sonor Tyrko ride 52 cm., Sonor Tyrko crash 41 cm.
================================================================Sonor teardrop red sparkle mid 60ties, played by Roy Moonen former drummer of my sons band (Michiel) STORKSKY.
Cool modern style drumming, firm style, on a 60ties set. Thanks Roy.
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The first video I took in August 2010. Just having some fun behind my Sonor Force 3000 in “Maserbirke” 22″- 8″-10″- 12″- 14″- 15″. Snare 14″x 6,5″, side drum sonor jungle snare.