DRUMANDSTAGE FORUM

Short version - was introduced to Sonor in the early 80's through Steve Smith's work with Journey and Vital Information, combined with my local shop just starting to carry them. Was introduced to the Performer, Lite, and Signature series at that point and was just blown away by their sound, look, and construction quality.

Fast forward almost 20 years to the early/mid 2000's, and I *finally* bought my first Sonor kit - a 5pc Birch Designer.

I generally don't buy and sell a lot of gear, as I tend to find and stick with what I like, so there's generally not a lot of turnover in my collection...

Drum kits:

• Med Beech 7pc SQ2 (10, 12, 14, 16, 22 and 18 kicks and 14x6.5 snare) in rosewood semigloss inside and out

  

  Performer 5pc (12, 13, 16, 22, + snare and hardware pack)

  

  Oak Phonics 4pc (13, 14, 16, 22)

  

Snares:

• 14x5.75 Hilite (HD500) Creme White
  14x5 Prolite (steel)
  12x5 Prolite in Silver Sparkle
  14x6.5 Vintage in Red Marble
  14x6.5 Kompressor Aluminium

Is your performer the yellow badge variety?

Beech shells?

45 or round over bearing edges?

Frank Godiva wrote: Wed May 28, 2025 2:06 pm Is your performer the yellow badge variety?

Yessir, the "Yellow Swoosh" badge. Definitely the beech shells and rounded bearing edges. The date stamps in all of the shells are 606 (June '86 if I read right).

Bought from the original owner, and still had the original heads with the stamps from Faust Music in Milwaukee. Even the hardware and cases still have the Faust stickers on them.

Faust was famous on many levels. I’ll make a post about them one day.

I own 2 yellow badge Performers. Both yellow badge midnight blue; one round over the other 45.

The rounds were the modern day Teardrops but in power sizes. Nothing else was 6ply beech in the 80s. Great set.

What’s your favorite head combo on those?

Frank Godiva wrote: Wed May 28, 2025 3:36 pm Faust was famous on many levels. I’ll make a post about them one day.

What’s your favorite head combo on those?

I've heard plenty of stories about Faust already - most would be "questionable" at best

So far I've really only spent time with the Remo Controlled Sound (CS) Black Dots over Ambassadors on the toms, and the CS Powerstroke 3 with the stock front head (with felt strip), and I'm quite liking them - kind of a mix of Ambassador and Emperor, but with a bit more focus to the sound. Tried the Pin stripes it came with, but for some reason I've never been able to get those heads to sound good, no matter what size or brand/model drum.

I just picked up the Oak Phonics over the weekend (and the Kompressor on top of the stack), so once I get through the cleaning, I'll need to figure out what heads to put on that one as well. So far the consensus seems to be clear Amabassadors top and bottom...