Stingray Percussion
Catagory: history
Drumline History: Stingray Percussion
You youngsters in the audience have probably never seen a Stingray drum, so it may surprise you to learn that for a short time in the early 1990’s the company held a significant place in the world of marching percussion.
Stingray Percussion – The Short History
Stingray Percussion was a drum manufacturing company created by an actual marching percussionist. The Founder, Rick Rogers Jr., began with a simple dream: Offer the world a product unlike anything else on the market.
While the first Stingray designs (1985) were made from wood, by 1987 the company had become synonymous with fiberglass.
The early Stingray drums were made to order and manufactured by hand in Red Creek, NY. The hardware, which looked like that of the long lost North Drum Co. was indeed the same. In 1986, Rogers purchased the North Drum hardware design rights for his line of Stingray drums. The first sets of the newly designed fiberglass drums showed up on the backs of the 1988 Rochester Crusaders and Westshoremen Drum and Bugle Corps.
The next evolution in Stingray’s history came with the discovery of the centrifugal molds (components used in the manufacture of shells) used by the then defunct Fibes Drum Co. (Fibes has returned on the scene and now produces a line of set drums). The molds, which had been left out in the elements, were in Huntsville, Ala. A mere $1500 later and they belonged to Stingray.
It was at about this same time that Rogers’ company took on a pair of investors, Dick Filkins and Bill Kaufman. The addition of Filkins and Kaufman made the company’s expansion possible.
Stingray Percussion – A New Age Design
Among the more notable features of the Stingray line was the power wedge design. A number of drums were based on this innovative new idea – including the Power Wedge SSL.
In the early 1990’s Stingray’s production facilities moved from the North East United States to Sunny Florida.
At this same time Stingray’s hardware design was modified to include a plastic cover which allowed the drums to be customized. Plastic covers were available in white or black. This new hardware, which was drastically lighter than the original North design, suffered from durability issues. The hardware required frequent interventions by the user.
As with most drums, durability of the equipment is often debated. The equipment’s strength seems to depend largely on the stresses placed upon it. While drums used by high school lines fared rather well, those used by drum corps were often criticized. Corps drumlines found that the equipment was just not capable of holding up to the rigors of a tour.
Durability wasn’t the only problem plaguing Stingray Percussion. Bass drum design problems meant that the company’s bass drum shell diameters were slightly small (the 18” model in particular). This problem often resulted in hoops slipping past heads. Some users reported that by replacing the Stingray hoops and claws with Premier hoops and claws, or by changing out the heads for a different brand the problem could be overcome.
Poor public image, internal strife between company leadership and numerous design problems spelled the end for Stingray. The company slowly disappeared from the scene so that by 2000 the company was all but gone.
Stingray Percussion’s last full drumline is believed to have been sold in 2000 to a high school unit in Ohio known as the Golden Vanguard.
New Stingray drums are no longer available.
Visit the edrumline.com Stingray Galleries.
Stingray Drum Gallery
Stingray Action Gallery
edrumline.com is working to assemble an archive of Stingray’s marching equipment. If you posses images or have corrections to the above information, please contact us.
My university, University Louisiana Monroe, used stingrays until 2001. Northwestern State marched the biggest sting ray line I had ever seen 13 stingray wedge snares. 6 wedge tenors. 8 basses
From Andrew Vowell on Apr 6