Looking to own a piece of history? Currently being auctioned is Neil Peart’s drum kit – a Slingerland set used on Rush’s tours and albums between 1974 and 1977.
Update: This drum kit sold for USD$500,312 -yes, half a million dollars- on December 10th
The Neil Peart drum kit is a chrome wrapped Slingerland kit made in Niles, Illinois, USA. Made of 3-ply shells of maple, poplar, and mahogany, the drum set is comprised of:
- Two 22″ bass drums, with blue resonant heads showing the “Rush” logo and “neil” “peart” across each head
- Two 13″ toms
- 14″ tom (with resonant head signed by Neil Peart)
- 16″ floor tom
- 14″ copper wrap Artist snare drum
- 6″, 8″, 10″, & 12″ copper wrap concert toms
Neil Peart’s cymbals include:
- Two Zildjian 8″ splash cymbals
- 13″ Zildjian New Beat hi-hats
- Two Zildjian 16″ medium crash cymbals
- 18″ Zildjian medium crash cymbal
- 20″ Zildjian medium crash cymbal
- 22″ Zildjian ping ride cymbal
- 18″ Zildjian pang cymbal
The drum set also includes a wide range of LP cowbells, chimes, bells, woodblocks, and more.
Along with standard hardware, the drum kit features Neil Peart’s dual Ludwig Speed King bass drum pedals (one on each drum), with a square felt bass drum beater.
When it comes to drumheads, Peart played both Remo and Evans heads across the kit. Most of the drum set’s batter heads are clear Remo Controlled Sound, while resonant heads include blue Evans all weather rock heavy duty heads. The snare drum features a Remo Ambassador snare side drumhead.
Peart’s concert toms feature unnumbered Remo experimental heads – while there’s no clear information on the exact type of head these are, they look like Remo Controlled Sound with a white dot (rather than the standard black dot). Remo Experimental heads are prototypes, and are sometimes given to performers for testing purposes.
Neil Peart originally purchased the drum set from Toronto music store Long & McQuade in mid-1974, very shortly after first joining Rush.
A few weeks later, he was playing these drums on Rush’s first USA tour, where the band opened for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.
The drum set was then used to record the classic Rush albums Fly by Night, Caress of Steel, and 2112, along with the 1976 live-in-Toronto album All the World’s a Stage. Soon after, the drum set was retired.
This Neil Peart drum kit is clearly roadworn from the years of touring and recording: The drumheads are covered in stickmarks, paint is missing from the bass drum hoops, and there’s snare rash on the rack tom from years of heavy use.
The drum set has an incredible starting bid of US$80,000, and will likely be sold for much more. Read more on auction house Bonham’s webpage.