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."

1 History
2 Drumset Lineup
3 Notable Drummers
4 Links

[edit] 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. 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 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 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.

[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 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.

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)