#Vintage tama snare professional#
#Vintage tama snare series#

The Toms and Snare are made of six ply of 5 mm maple while the bass is eight ply of 7 mm, and come in lacquer and Unicolor wrap finishes.

#Vintage tama snare series#

Superstar Classic – The Superstar Classic series is made of all maple shells.This variation comes in a satin lacquer finish with a vertical stripe. Superstar Hyper-Drive Duo – This variation of the Superstar Hyper-Drive series features the 'Duo Snare', a 14'×10' snare drum mounted on floor tom legs, which can either be used as a deep snare drum or as an additional 14' short stack floor tom.The shells are made of 6-ply, 5 mm maple (8-ply, 7 mm for the bass drum), and come in lacquer and Unicolor wrap finishes.

Superstar Hyper-Drive Maple – The Superstar Hyper-Drive Maple series features all maple shells, with 'Hyper-Drive' short depth toms and die-cast hoops in a black nickel finish.

The original Superstar and Superstar Excel were made up of Birch shells. Although originally discontinued, Tama has brought back the Superstar series to their lineup in 2015.

Superstar – Tama's line of semi-professional drums.

These drums include Meinl HCS brass cymbals as standard equipment. Like their less expensive Swingstar counterparts, these drums are made with poplar shells in a wrap finish and feature Accu-Tune bass drum hoops.

Imperialstar – Tama's line of entry-level drum kits named after the previous Imperial Star line.

This line is available in regular and 'Mini' configurations.

Cocktail-JAM – Tama's line of cocktail drum kits made from 100% birch shells.

This line is available in four different configurations: the regular Club-JAM kit, the Suitcase kit, the Mini kit, and the Flyer kit.

Club-JAM – Tama's line of compact drum kits made from poplar shells.

They vary in pitch by using different shell lengths, rather than widths. Octobans are 6-inches in diameter and are manufactured in eight different lengths (hence the prefix 'octo-') up to 600mm (23.62 in). They also invented unique tubular drums called Octobans. Tama was one of the first companies to offer super heavy-duty hardware, and drum mounting systems that did not intrude into the shell like most brands in the 1970s. However, even the professionals were starting to use the Tama drums because of the low cost of the Asian-made drums with the (now) high quality of hardware.

#Vintage tama snare professional#

The original plan was to market the low-end Tama drums to beginners and use the Camco brand to sell high-end drums to professional musicians. Tama integrated all the engineering from Camco into their production process and the overall level of quality of their drums increased virtually overnight. The Tama version of the Camco pedal is commonly referred to as the Tamco pedal to distinguish it from an original Camco pedal. Tama began production of the same pedal under the Camco name. DW continued production of the pedal using the original tooling, rebadging it as the DW5000. As part of the deal, DW received the Camco tooling and manufacturing equipment while Tama received the Camco name, designs, engineering and patent rights.Īt the time, Camco was producing what was thought to be the best drum pedal on the market. Tama and Drum Workshop (DW) jointly bought the bankrupt Camco Drum Company. 'Star' continues to be used in the names of Tama's drum models to this day. Tama was the name of the owner's wife, and is also a homophone with the Japanese word meaning 'jewel'. The two higher lines of drum models, Imperial Star and Royal Star, were introduced to the American market and were successful lower-cost drums competing against more expensive American-made drums offered by Rogers, Ludwig, and Slingerland at the time.īy 1974, Hoshino decided to make a concerted effort to make high-quality drums and hardware and start marketing its drums under the Tama brand. While the production of guitars and amps was moved out of the factory by 1966, the production of drums there continued to grow. The drums were manufactured at Hoshino's subsidiary, Tama Seisakusho, which had opened in 1962 to manufacture Ibanez guitars and amplifiers. Hoshino, the family name of the founder, translates to 'star field,' thus the selection of the 'Star Drums' brand name. Hoshino Gakki began manufacturing drums in 1961 under the name 'Star Drums'.