Rogers Drums is an American multinational drum manufacturer. It was founded in 1849 and originally based in Covington, Ohio. During the twentieth century, their drums enjoyed popularity with musicians spanning from the Dixieland jazz era in the 1920s to classic rock in the 1960s and 1970s, but was particularly associated with big band and swing drummers of the 1940s and 1950s. History The Rogers company was started in 1849 by James Rogers, an Irish immigrant from Dublin to the United States. Rogers started crafting drum heads in Brewster’s Station, New York. A second tannery was established later in Farmingdale, New Jersey, operated by his son Joseph H. Rogers Junior. James Rogers' grandson Cleveland S. Rogers began to manufacture the first "Rogers" drums at the Farmingdale tannery in the 1930s. The first Rogers drums were assembled from shells and hardware of other manufacturers but mounted with Rogers heads. In 1955, Cleveland Rogers, who had no heirs, sold the Rogers drum company to Henry Grossman. Grossman moved the company to Covington, Ohio, and under his leadership, Rogers moved to the forefront of American drum making for the next decade and a half. Design engineer Joe Thompson and marketing manager Ben Strauss were instrumental in Rogers' success during its golden age from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s. The company's drums were embraced by musicians from the Dixieland movement to the classic rockers of the 1960s and 1970s. However, the manufacturer was most closely associated with the "big band" and swing drummers of the 1940s and 1950s. The Dyna-Sonic snare drum Rogers' "Dyna-Sonic" snare drum featured a number of innovations, such as a unique cradle in which the snare wires were supported. This device provided a means by which the longitudinal tension of the snare wires could be adjusted independently of the vertical force holding the snares against the bottom head. As a result, the snares could be tensioned as tightly as the drummer wanted without having to pull the snares against the head so hard they constrained (choked) the head's vibration. This and other innovations (for example, a remarkably shallow—4/1000"—snare bed) made possible by the novel tensioning arrangement gave the drum a relatively crisp and recognizably clear sound. Dyna-Sonics were made from about 1961 until the mid-'80s. The company was bought in 1966 by CBS Musical Instruments, which had also acquired in 1965 Fender Guitars and Rhodes Pianos. The vast majority of