Tama Seisakusho

Tama Drums (usually referred to as Tama) is a division of Hoshino Gakki MFG. Co. Ltd. that manufactures drums in Nagoya, Japan. Tama's motto is "The Strongest Name in Drums."

History

The Hoshino Gakki company was founded in 1908 by Matsujiro Hoshino as a MusicAL instrument sales division of the Hoshino Shoten bookstore company. Matsujiro was succeeded by Yoshitaro Hoshino. In 1935, the company began manufacturing their own stringed instruments. The company had little presence in the Western world until the mid-1960s.

In 1962, Junpei Hoshino, Yoshitaro's son, opened the Tama Seisakusho factory to manufacture electric guitars and amplifiers. The Tama Seisakusho factory produced a line of guitars that included clones of several popular guitars, including the Martin Dreadnought. At the time they were also manufacturing Star Drums, available in Either the Imperial or Royal models. Hoshino Gakki stopped making guitars at the Tama Seisakusho factory in 1966 but continued to produce Star Drums.

In 1974, Hoshino introduced the Tama brand. They were successful in marketing lower cost Philippine mahogany shelled drums at a much lower price point than the more expensive maple shelled drums offered by Rogers, Ludwig and Slingerland at the time. Tama and Drum Workshop (DW) jointly bought the bankrupt Camco Drum Company. As part of the deal, DW received the Camco tooling and manufacturing equipment while Tama received the Camco name, designs, engineering and patent rights.

At the time, Camco was producing what was thought to be the best drum pedal on the market. DW continued production of the pedal using the original tooling, rebadging it as the DW5000. Tama began production of the same pedal under the Camco name. The Tama version of the Camco pedal is commonly referred to as the Tamco pedal to distinguish it from an original Camco pedal. Tama integrated all the engineering from Camco into their production process and the overall level of Quality of their drums increased virtually overnight. 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. Unfortunately, even the professionals were starting to use the Tama drums because the low cost of the Asian made drums with the (now) high quality of hardware was a great combination.

The Iron Cobra has the same configuration options as the original Camco pedal and the current DW5000 pedal. These are Power Glide, Rolling Glide and Flexi Glide. Power Glide pedals have an offset cam chain drive. This causes the beater to accelerate faster towards the end of the pedal stroke. This drive system is identical to the DW Accelerator pedals (DW5000AD or DW5000AX models) or the Camco Deluxe model bass drum pedals. The Rolling Glide pedals maintain a fixed ratio of footboard speed to beater speed and the drive system is identical to the DW Turbo pedals (DW5000TD3 or DW5000CX). Finally, the Flexi Glide pedals are a Kevlar strap driven pedal that has the exact same drive system that was found on the Camco pedals in the 50s. Again, DW makes a pedal with this same drive system under the DW5000ND3 and DW5000NX model names.

Tama was one of the first companies to offer SUPER heavy duty hardware, and drum mounting systems that didn't intrude into the shell like most 70's brands. They also invented unique tubular drums called Octobans. Octobans are 6" in diameter and are manufactured in eight different lengths (hence the prefix "octo-") up to 600mm (23.5"). They vary in pitch by using different shell lengths, rather than widths. Notable users include Stewart Copeland of The Police, Simon Phillips of Toto and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater. Tama snares were unique in that they offered a cast bell brass shell at a time that they were very rare on the market. Tama developed the Techstar line of electronic drums. These were unique in the 80's in that they used a real drumhead instead of a solid rubber surface.

Drumset Lineup

Tama drum production can be classified in 7 ways. Limited EDition, limited production, special order add-on tom production, mass production in Japan, mass production in China, mass production in Taiwan and discontinued. Tama has a summer and winter release of new types of drums every year. These releases coincide with the National Association of Music Manufacturers (NAMM) Biannual convention. Twice a year, at these times Tama restocks the shelves of the specialty drum shops with new limited edition and limited production drums. Specialty drum shops and chain music stores get supplied with mass production drums as needed. Add-on toms are special order drums made to expand an existing drumset, and are available through specialty drum shops.

Tama Drums are hand made. On most Limited edition and limited production drums, the inside of each shell is signed by the person who crafted the drum. Most Limited Edition sets have matching snare drums, while most other sets are sold as "shell packs" without a matching snare, or with a metal snare from the same line. Tama was one of the first companies to offer super heavy duty hardware, and a free floating drum mounting system (StarCast) at the time of its appearance the mounting system was unique as unlike standard tom mounting systems where the mount is attached to the shell, the StarCast system suspends the tom from its upper rim, allowing the shell to resonate freely for a much improved sound. Tama hardware is now made in Taiwan, and often re-badged for other companies like Premier drums of England.

Original Tama Superstar drums, as well as Imperialstar and Fibrestar have become collectors items. There are groups Devoted to restoring the Superstar drums with mahogany finish thanks in no small part to the influence of Neil Peart of Rush using them. Tama imperialstars, combined with titan hardware have been a favorite of gigging drummers because of the ruggedness and wrap finish.

Tama's cordia wood Artstar line (again introduced by Neil Peart's iconic red prototype) ushered in an era of thinner drum shells. The artstar was Tama's turning point away from heavy and thick shelled drums. Tama's cordia/birch wood artstar II were aimed at the competitions higher priced drums with an exotic finish. The lower price made them a bargain compared to European brands. The modern equivalent of the artstar II, are the limited/exotix made of maple, koa and bubinga.

Limited Edition

  • Starclassic Maple Reserve (Curly Maple/Maple Shell, Abalone Inlays, Brushed Nickel Hardware)
  • Starclassic EXOTIX 2007: Warlord (Quilted African Bubinga/African Bubinga Shell, Swarovski Crystals inlayed on lug casings and badges, Warlord styled Brushed Nickel Hardware)
  • Starclassic Performer Limited Edition (Birch shells in "New Fusion" sizes, Metallic lacquer finish with a glitter accent stripe, Black Nickel Hardware)

Limited Production

  • Starclassic Bubinga Omni-Tune (African bubinga shells; lacquer finish with abalone inlays and special Omni-Tune lugs)
  • Starclassic Bubinga (African bubinga shells; Starclassic-type lugs; lacquer finish)
  • Starclassic Mirage (Acrylic Shells)
  • Starclassic Maple EFX (Maple shells; Silk wrap)
  • Starclassic Performer B/B EFX (Birch/African bubinga shells; Glitter Wrap)
  • Starclassic Performer B/B (Birch/African bubinga shells; lacquer finish)

Mass Production (Made in Japan)

  • Starclassic Maple (Maple shells; lacquer finish)
  • Starclassic Performer (Birch shells; lacquer finish)

Mass Production (Made in China)

  • Superstar Custom (Birch/Basswood shells; lacquer finish)
  • Superstar EFX (Birch/Basswood shells; Satin wrap)
  • Superstar (Birch/Basswood shells; solid color wrap)

Mass Production (Made in Taiwan)

  • Imperialstar (Poplar shells; solid color wrap)

Notable Drummers

  • Fenny of the Fentanillas
  • Tim Alexander of the Alternative Metal band Primus.
  • Fredrik Andersson of the melodic death metal band Amon Amarth.
  • Kenny Aronoff - independent session and studio drummer, played with John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, Melissa Etheridge, Jon Bon Jovi, The Smashing Pumpkins and many more.
  • Frank Beard of the rock band ZZ Top.
  • Charlie Benante of the heavy metal band Anthrax.
  • Bill Bruford of Yes, King Crimson and Earthworks.
  • Stewart Copeland of The Police.
  • Abe Cunningham of Deftones.
  • John Dolmayan of the alternative metal band System of a Down.
  • Dave Grohl of the grunge rock band Nirvana.
  • Ian Haugland of the rock band Europe (band).
  • Taylor Hawkins of the rock band Foo Fighters.
  • Dominic Howard of the British Progressive Rock band Muse.
  • Jimmy Keegan of the progressive rock band Spock's Beard
  • Michel Langevin (Away) of Voivod.
  • Zach Lind of the band Jimmy Eat World, used from 1994 to 2004.
  • Dave Lombardo of the thrash metal band Slayer.
  • Dave Mackintosh of the power metal band Dragonforce.
  • Mike Malinin of the alternative rock band Goo Goo Dolls.
  • George "Spanky" McCurdy of the gospel group Tye Tribbett & GA
  • Gil Moore of the rock band Triumph.
  • John Panozzo of the rock band Styx.
  • Neil Peart of the rock band Rush used from 1979 to 1986.
  • Simon Phillips of Toto.
  • Mike Portnoy of the progressive metal band Dream Theater.
  • Christoph "Doom" Schneider of the German industrial metal band Rammstein.
  • David Silveria of the nu-metal band Korn.
  • John Stanier of Helmet (1989–1997), Tomahawk, and Battles.
  • Daniel Svensson of Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames.
  • Roger Taylor of the electronic pop-rock band Duran Duran.
  • Simon Taylor of InMe.
  • John Tempesta of Rob Zombie / Helmet.
  • Scott Travis of the heavy metal band Judas Priest.
  • Jukka Nevalainen of the symphonic metal band Nightwish.
  • Lars Ulrich of the heavy metal band Metallica.
  • Dirk Verbeuren of the melodic death metal bands Scarve and Soilwork.
  • Bill Ward of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath.
  • Yoshiki Hayashi of the heavy metal band X Japan.
  • John Blackwell of Prince, Justin Timberlake, and Independent.

de:Tama (Hersteller) it:Tama no:Tama tromme pl:Tama (producent instrumentów) fi:Tama Seisakusho tr:Tama Hoshino Gakki Group

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