Buddy Rich endorsed several major brands of drums during his career.  Slingerland, Ludwig and  Rogers were the primary ones with Vox and Fibes having use of his name briefly.  His penchant for giving them away and requesting replacements did not endear him to his sponsors.  He never endorsed Gretsch because Gretsch did not give their stuff away to anybody.  He fell out with Rogers when CBS acquired Rogers.  Buddy asked the Columbia Records Division of CBS to record his new band in '68 and they refused. When I first saw him perform in '69, he was playing a set of chrome finished Fibes, but I never saw any advertising indicating that he was an endorser.  The affair with Vox was very brief, as anyone who ever used a set of those will understand.  He went back with Slingerland, until they effectively disappeared from the local scene, when he went back to Ludwig, the only one of the American "big four" manufacturers left. When that association ended, he remarked  that he wished he had a set like "they used to make them".  Friend and drum maker Joe MacSweeney of Eames Drum company put together a set of Slingerland Radio Kings that I believe he played until he died.

The restored set of Radio Kings that he played late in his career, as displayed in the Smithsonian. Beavertail lugs and stickchopper hoops are all replated.  Set restored by Joe MacSweeney of Eames Drum Co. Interestingly, the snare is the model originally known as the Gene Krupa Model, with three  point strainer and "outrigger" snare brackets.  This keeps the snare butts clear of the heads so that only the snares are in contact with it.(Note the vise-grips holding the tom holder to the shell)

Below are pics of Buddy in action on the restored set.

I have a number of other pics of Buddy on vintage Slingerland kits but am having trouble       uploading them at the moment.

To P3, Krupa Sets