U.S. Mercury. Apollo. Majestic. Zim-Gar. Lido Supreme. Whitehall. You may have never heard of 1960s or 1970s drum companies. But you may have heard of the companies who massed produced them — Pearl and Tama.
They looked great. Some dressed in beautiful wraps like fantasia pearl, tiger eye and other attractive and wild wraps. Some even copied Slingerland lugs to the T. One of the faults of these “copy cat” mass produced stencil kit was quality control. Unlike the popular drums which were made of maple and mahogany…these kits where made with cheap vertical grain wood called Luan. That’s one of the most accurate ways to identify Made in Japan drums. The hardware was also cheap. Easy to rust. Easy to break.
Not all MIJs were created equal though.
In 1967, Yamaha introduced their first drum set - the D20 and D30. From their first conception, these drums were made from birch. The ends of the master ply are cut diagonally, ran through the glue machine and then put into the mold. Once they overlap the diagonal unto itself they hit the joints so they are locked in. Each seam is staggered 120 degrees so that the tension of the shell is evenly spaced. Once this is done, they stick an airbag in the middle of the shell so the glue is evenly spread throughout the drum. This method doesn't require the wood and glue to be put under high temperatures to create a bond.
This process is still used today.
These D series kits came in 8 beautiful wraps and cost around $400 compared to a brand new Ludwig which were around $700. The C series kits cost around $250. You could see why the flood of MIJ kits flooding the states put pressure on Ludwig to create the “Standard” (cheaper hardware and less manpower) line which cost around $350 in 1968.
My C-200 are dressed in blue thunder. Shell construction are birch shells with mahogany inner core and beech re-rings. 14x20 bass drum (9 ply), 5x14 snare (6 ply), 8x12 tom (6 ply) and 14x14 floor tom (6 ply). This kit also came with their special Yamaha plastic heads.
The video below is a very good friend of mine, Eric Berringer, who lives here in Nashville, TN. I asked him to come over and take this Yamaha C-200 for a spin. The kit is equipped with Evans Calftone drum heads and no muffling in or on any drum. Snare and toms are in medium to high tuning and the bass drum is medium to low tuning. Please enjoy with headphones.
The cymbals are the Heartbeat Jazz line. From left to right they are: 17” Jazz hats. 20” medium Jazz crash, 24” medium Jazz crash and 22” light Jazz crash.
The snare and tom are being lightly suspended with TnR Little Booty Shakers and the floor tom with Big Booty Shakers.
This whole kit is available through 3rd & 4th Drums in Nashville, TN. Visit their website for more info - www.3rdand4thdrums.com
Edwin Rivera III is the owner of 3rd & 4th Drums in Thompson's Station, TN, specializing in drum rentals for the greater Nashville area as well as crafting drums. Edwin and his drums have been featured on the hit CMT show "Nashville", has been recorded and sampled by the boutique sample company "That Sound" and has crafted drums for drummers such as Chris Tyrell formerly of "Lady Antebellum", Grammy Award winner/session drummer Paul Mabury and many more up and coming drummers. He's currently the drum tech for Leif Skartland, drummer for CCM artist Jeremy Camp. Edwin does remote drum sessions from his home studio where he also drum engineers for many Nashville-based drummers.
