CAMCO * Vintage Drums

Info and pictures from
CamcoDrummer.com and VintageSnaredrums.com
CAMCO Drum History written by Harry Cangany:
The Camco story is very interesting...sometime in the 50s, a little machine shop in a suburb of Chicago, called Oaklawn, starting building versions of stands and hi hats that resembled those being made in England, by Premier. They also came up with a pedal design, based on another pedal called a "Martin Fleetfoot". John Rochon, the president of Camco allied himself with the Rogers Drum Company and a man named George Way. At that point, Rochon's company was known as "Camco Drum Accessories" They were also an early manufacturer of plastic drumheads. For Rogers, Camco was a supplier before, and just as they were bringing out their Swiv-o-matic line of stands and single post pedal. After those products were out, Rogers didn't really need Camco, and Camco got it's own drum manufacturer anyway. That manufacturer was the aforementioned George Way, president of the George Way Drum Company. . Camco was the alternative for Way, to the lesser quality products from Walberg and Auge that he also stocked and featured in his catalogs. Way started manufacturing drums in 1956 -7 inside the defunct Leedy factory in Elkhart. This is the same time that Leedy went to Slingerland and the Ludwig family bought back it's name from Conn and changed WFL to Ludwig. Camco provided enough hardware pieces to round out the Way catalog., so he looked like he could compete with the big manufacturers. After all, George Way, the former sales manager of Leedy and Slingerland, had a 40 year career and well known name to trade on. The rumor has always been that John Rochon gained control of George Way Drums in 1961 in a backhanded way. My guess is that Rochon was Way's biggest creditor, and through negotitions, kept getting equity instead of bill payments. Finally, he got control.
Rochon changed the black winged Way badge to the white winged Camco badge. He kept George Lewan, a longtime former Leedy employee who had gone with Way, as a supervisor and moved the production to Oaklawn. Those drums, the marriage of the Leedy tradition with the designs of Way, have been sought after all these years.
I have heard varitions of the story of how Way created the round lug that he called the Aristocrat. I have known people who have always sweared by the Camco pedal, the only real competition for the Ludwig Speed King back in the 60s. The Camco factory also made the equally accepted Gretsch Floating Action pedal.
The great appeal of Camco was the wonderful woodwork--the Jasper shells, 3 plies, 4 plies. The metal hoops were a variation of earlier double flanged Leedy hoops with higher collars--so attractive, so easy for tuning. The weaknesses, if anyone really noticed, were the finicky strainers and the heavy reliance on Walberg and Auge's second class holders and plating on them.
Camco never made great catalogs--mostly black and white, and undated, and if you look close, you can find Way badges and outdated holders. Lots of jazz guys played little Camcos--the featured rock players in the catalogs included Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and Nick Ceroli of the Tiajuana Brass, although, he didn't play rock.
Camco was sold to the Kustom Amplifier Company and moved to Chanute, Kansas, at a time when guitar and drum companies were joined at the hip. Later, they were sold to a Los Angeles entrepreneur. That owner, Beckman Industires, later sold the name and half the rights to the famous pedal to Hoshino, the owner of Tama Drums. The other half of the pedal rights and the rest of the company were sold to a group of drum teachers in Los Angeles, who made thrones on the side. They were known as--they are still known as--Drum Workshop.
What a heritage--what a tradition! No wonder, most of us can't find these wonderful pieces of drum history. And whether you like the hypnotic 3-D Moire, a beautiful white marine pearl or one of the fabulous lacquer finishes, if you can find a Camco, you can find a little pot of gold without having to find the end of a rainbow.
Written by Harry Cangany, March 2003.
The story continues...
Info from DWDrums.com
... when DW received a purchase order for 100 seats from Camco Drum Co., Don and John realized that they had an innovative product that would sell. Thirty years later, DW is now offering a new version of the trap-case adjustable seat, made out of a lighter weight material.
However, when DW created the original trap case seat, they had the capacity and personnel to create only a dozen seats a month, not 100. Don was still teaching and playing a nightly gig while John built the products. Shortly thereafter, Camco Drum Co. owner Tom Beckman approached Don in 1977 with an offer to sell him Camco’s machinery, dies and molds, everything it took to make Camco drums and hardware—everything except the Camco name itself. This gave Don the opportunity to expand his capacity for creating the seats and to expand his product line. At that point, Don made the decision to accept the offer and change the direction of Drum Workshop from teaching and selling to manufacturing.
Borrowing most of the money from his parents and some from outside investors, Don purchased Camco’s tooling and reintroduced the Camco 5000 nylon strap bass drum pedal under the DW name. The pedal was refined to improve consistency, quietness, smoothness and adjustability of its mechanical operation. As the pedal was rapidly becoming “the drummer’s choice,” Don continued to search for ways to further improve it. The addition of the Chain & Sprocket drive system in 1980 not only vastly improved the DW pedal, but also helped set it apart from others on the market. Three years later, DW introduced a double bass drum pedal that incorporated a unique linkage with universal joints. DW’s 5002 Double Pedal not only filled a need and solidified DW’s position in the market as innovators, it ushered in a whole new era in drumming since, for the first time, single bass drum players could now use both feet to create new rhythms and increase speed.
CAMCO Myspace by BRUNO
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