Tama Seisakusho

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Tama Seisakusho is a division of Hoshino Gakki MFG. Co. Ltd. that manufactures drums in Nagoya, Japan. Tama's motto is "The Strongest Name in Drums."

Contents

[edit] History

The Hoshino Gakki company began in 1908 as a musical instrument sales division of the Hoshino Shoten bookstore company. In 1935 they began manufacturing their own stringed instruments. The company had little presence in the Western world until the mid-1960s.

In 1962 the Tama Seisakusho company was established by the Hoshino Gakki group to manufacture electric guitars and amplifiers. Tama 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.

The Hoshino Gakki Group acquired a small Spanish guitar company named Ibañez in 1965. At that point, they rebranded the guitars in the foreign market under the Ibanez name and continued to produce the 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.

Tama was producing kits known in the industry as stencil kits, but this changed in 1978. 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.

Tama discontinued the Camco line, and started producing high end drumsets under the Tama name. The Tamco pedal was eventually rebadged as the Iron Cobra and is still available today. 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 nylon 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 is always designing new concepts and ideas for drummers. Tama is the holder of over 100 patents. In addition to this, they also have a very long track record of taking a good, but not yet workable concept and re-engineering it into a more solid concept.

Selected Innovations

  • The Lever Glide Hi-Hat system.
  • The Iron Cobra Hi-Hat Clutch pedal.

Selected Re-engineering

  • Tama Octobans are an improved version of "Dragon Drums"
  • Omniball/Omnisphere tom mounts are an improved version of Roger's Ball and Socket mounts
  • Tama's Star Cast hoop mounting system and air-ride snare mounting system is a suspension tom mounting system which is under license from Purecussion
  • Omnitune lugs are an improved version of the "Gladstone Lug"


[edit] 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 North American Music Retailers (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.

Limited Edition

  • Lars Ulrich Signature Granstar II (Artstar II Maple Shells in Piano White finish with Black Nickel Granstar II Hardware)
  • Artstar Custom (Titanium Shell)
  • Starclassic Quilted Maple (Quilted Maple/Maple Shell)
  • Starclassic EXOTIX 2001 (Chestnut/Maple Shell)
  • Starclassic EXOTIX 2002 (Hawaiian Koa/African Bubinga Shell)
  • Starclassic EXOTIX 2003 (Quilted Sapele/African Bubinga Shell)
  • Starclassic EXOTIX 2005: Dark Continent (African Bubinga Shell, Abolone Inlays, Brushed Nickel Hardware)
  • Starclassic EXOTIX 2005: Red Viking (Scandinavian Birch/African Bubinga Shell, Abalone Inlays, Brushed Nickel Hardware)
  • Starclassic EXOTIX 2006: Hawaiian Thunder (Hawaiian Koa/Maple Shell, Abalone Inlays, Brushed Nickel Hardware)
  • Starclassic Maple Reserve (Curly Maple/Maple Shell, Abalone Inlays, Brushed 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)
  • Starclassic Performer EFX (Birch shells; Glitter Wrap)
  • Starclassic Performer Diamond Dust (Birch shells; glitter lacquer finish)
  • Starclassic Performer Hyperdrive (Birch shells cut shorter than normal; Glitter Wrap)
  • Starclassic Performer Flashback (Birch shells; Liquid Metal Wrap with neon orange or green highlights that glow under blacklight)
  • Starclassic Performer Neo-Retro (Birch shells in John Bohnam sizes; lacquer finish)
  • Swingstar Custom EFX (Philippine mahogany shells; vintage wrap)


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)
  • Swingstar (Philippine mahogany shells; solid color wrap)
  • Stagestar (Philippine mahogany shells; solid color wrap)


Special Order Includes all the limited production and mass production models. Generally, the special order drums are only add-on drums for an already existing drum set and are not full drum sets. Following are the discontinued drums that are still available for special order add-on.

  • Rockstar Custom (Philippine mahogany/Basswood shells; lacquer finish)
  • Artstar II (Maple shells; lacquer finish)
  • Artstar ES (Maple shells; lacquer finish)


Discontinued

  • Artstar
  • Artstar II
  • Artstar ES
  • CAMCO (by Tama)


  • RHYTHM MATE (by Tama)


  • Crestar


  • Crystar


  • Fibrestar


  • Granstar
  • Granstar Custom
  • Granstar II


  • Imperialstar (Old style)


  • Rockstar
  • Rockstar RK
  • Rockstar DX
  • Rockstar PRO
  • Rockstar Custom
  • Rockstar Premium
  • Rockstar RM
  • Rockstar RD
  • Rockstar RS
  • Rockstar RT


  • Royalstar


  • Star Drums: Imperial
  • Star Drums: Royal


  • Superstar (Old style)


  • Techstar
  • Techstar II


The Silk wraps look identical to the vintage 'Onyx' finish found on '50s era Rogers drums. The Glitter wraps look identical to the 'Flakes' finish found on the '30s era Ludwig drums. The Vintage wraps look identical to the vintage 'Marine Pearl' finish found on '50s era Slingerland and Ludwig drums. The Satin wraps look identical to the 'Satin Flame Pearl' finish found on late '60s era Slingerland and Camco drums.

Note that the information contained above is based on the information contained in Modern Drummer, DRUM!, The official Tama website, and NAMM press releases. However, Tama drums are hand crafted, and in some cases, made to order. Because of this fact, specific features of individual drums may vary.

[edit] Notable Drummers

[edit] Links

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