I started playing drums when I was eleven years old and have had the bug ever since. I used to drive my parents crazy with the noise and made it even worse when my band would practice in my garage and all of the neighbors would complain. I still to this day play around the Houston area with a group called Rick & Company comprised of studio musicians whom I have working in my recording studio. We use various line ups for each show it works very well with new blood playing in each show and the song lists are endless.

     I am fifty three years old and do not see the end of my energy for wanting to play live. I will always love that feeling.

    Most of my kits have been purchased piece by piece and assembled over the course of years and I am still and will still continue to do so. This is a very costly and time consuming process but when your passion for these drums is so intense as mine is and God bless my wife for having patience for my passion for drums especially old Ludwig Drums while I seem to endlessly search the planet for the various pieces required to complete the drums that I constantly dream about and which sometimes get me through very stressing days.

    My main passion along with collecting Vistalite Drum Sets is collecting drum sets from the 1960's. I have a magnificent collection of Gold Champagne Ludwig Drums from 1967 and am still searching for the proper front bass drum hoops for the two bass drums for this set. I also am assembling a black diamond pearl set presently and also a 1967 Rogers set.

    I have currently over thirty Ludwig shells which have had damaged shell covers and have stripped these covers from the drums and have repaired the shell and intend to start building additional sets including a wooden set from the shells.

   I hope I haven't bored you to death with my story but it is nice to talk with collectors that share the same passion as me regarding these fine vintage drums.

   Regards,
   Rick Ware

    email Rick at  rickware@houston.rr.com