Yamaha Drums

Dear Yamaha experts,

I need a little advice: I've got the possibility of buying 3 Yamaha RC Toms (8", 10" 13") for around USD 500, they are made in England and in good condition. It would be sort of a little side project for me, buying the kit slowly one by one. Do you think this is a good offer? Thanks a lot
 
MangueBeat said:
Dear Yamaha experts,

I need a little advice: I've got the possibility of buying 3 Yamaha RC Toms (8", 10" 13") for around USD 500, they are made in England and in good condition. It would be sort of a little side project for me, buying the kit slowly one by one. Do you think this is a good offer? Thanks a lot
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If those are the sizes and finish color that you want, and they are in nice shape, yes that is a good price. Individually, they would sell for $175-$300 each depending on condition. That being said, I've seen entire kits go for $1000 to whatever, depending on the number of drums. The best way to be certain you get a matching kit, is to save your money and buy an entire kit when you have the dough.

If they are Piano Black or Cherrywood you should be ok to buy additional used drums in the future. Keep in mind, Yamaha has just discontinued all of their Japanese made drums, including RC's. So, you won't find any new ones going forward unless they decide to make them in the new China plant. If they are any other color I would stay away. Any other color besides those 2 may be difficult to match down the road.
 
Hey drumnhands
I have two questions for you.
I have bought a Birch Custom Absolute nouveau kit. I paid A LOT of money for it.
I asked Yamaha to built me an add-on drum and the answer was no. I felt kinda betrayed.
The same shell and finish (black sparkle) are still being produced with the newer series. The same hardware (die cast hoops, tom bracket etc) is still being used. The only difference is the nouveau lugs and the YESS I. However these two are still being used on other drums and drum series.
Q1: Why should I invest my money again on a company that is not willing to produce a drum for me?
Q2: If the economic crisis affected the company so much that you need to move the production to china, how can you afford turning down orders and hand-picking only the ones you like?
I would really like an answer from you.
Thanks for your time
 
BGH said:
If those are the sizes and finish color that you want, and they are in nice shape, yes that is a good price. Individually, they would sell for $175-$300 each depending on condition. That being said, I've seen entire kits go for $1000 to whatever, depending on the number of drums. The best way to be certain you get a matching kit, is to save your money and buy an entire kit when you have the dough.

If they are Piano Black or Cherrywood you should be ok to buy additional used drums in the future. Keep in mind, Yamaha has just discontinued all of their Japanese made drums, including RC's. So, you won't find any new ones going forward unless they decide to make them in the new China plant. If they are any other color I would stay away. Any other color besides those 2 may be difficult to match down the road.
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Thanks for your quick reply. Yes they are Piano Black, so there should be no problem finding additional shells. They would be my second drum set for a little variation, as I'm really happy with my Gretsch Renown Oak. So I'm not in a hurry to get a complete set all at once.
 
So, in my panic over Yamaha's impending radical changeover, I went and got a quote today for a new MCA - just to see if it would be doable, because it's now or never. Here's what I asked for:

24x16 (they don't make a 24x14)
13x9
16x15
18x16

Guess how much?

North of $4,500 not including shipping! Oh man, I don't think that's gonna happen. Too bad.
 
MikeM said:
So, in my panic over Yamaha's impending radical changeover, I went and got a quote today for a new MCA - just to see if it would be doable, because it's now or never. Here's what I asked for:

24x16 (they don't make a 24x14)
13x9
16x15
18x16

Guess how much?

North of $4,500 not including shipping! Oh man, I don't think that's gonna happen. Too bad.
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Yeah, they're not exactly giving them away are they? ;-) I've been wanting to add another bass drum to my MCA collection but every time I go to place the order I think about everything else I could buy with the same amount of money.
 
MikeM said:
So, in my panic over Yamaha's impending radical changeover, I went and got a quote today for a new MCA - just to see if it would be doable, because it's now or never. Here's what I asked for:

24x16 (they don't make a 24x14)
13x9
16x15
18x16

Guess how much?

North of $4,500 not including shipping! Oh man, I don't think that's gonna happen. Too bad.
Click to expand...

Here's one for $1000 less, new on eBay with similar sizes but 13 and 24 are deeper:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAMAHA-MAPL...574?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2e044336
 
MikeM said:
So, in my panic over Yamaha's impending radical changeover, I went and got a quote today for a new MCA - just to see if it would be doable, because it's now or never. Here's what I asked for:

24x16 (they don't make a 24x14)
13x9
16x15
18x16

Guess how much?

North of $4,500 not including shipping! Oh man, I don't think that's gonna happen. Too bad.
Click to expand...


Forks has a piano black PHX one eBay.Make them an offer maybe you can get them to work on their price. Trust me the 22 will not let you down if you are used to 24s. Most immense sounding kick I have played.

Anyone who owns a Japanese made kit should hold on to them. Yamaha has a pretty good resale own the used market and with the Japanese kits going away I can only imagine that this will improve. I'm sure Yamaha will make some really nice drums in China but to eliminate the RC is a very surprising move.
 
Finally did it!

Yamaha Stage Custom
10/12/14/20
 

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wildbill said:
For real? Or another "I'm thinking about it" thing? LOL

If for real - those are some gorgeous drums. They really look good.

Can you give a rundown on what happened with the cymbals?
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I traded in a 22" Zildjian Medium Ride & a 20" A Custom Ride
I bought a 17" Zildjian Medium crash & a 20" K Ride
I also bought the 10/12/14/20 excluding the snare and bought a 14" Ludwig Acrolite Snare (The galaxy black one someone mentioned earlier) instead.
I turned my new beats upside down for a different sound (someone mentioned this to me in a different thread, I am not sure what it actually did but I think I like it.)
I put all G2 coated on tops and G1 cleats on bottom.

I set the kit up A LOT lower than I did with my thunderous Ludwig.

My guitarist and I seem to really like the sound and it is definitely a lot more articulate and bright sounding.. a little getting used to.

I don't know if I can really "rock" out on the kit as i did the luddies because it's just so, tiny and low.

Regardless, the kit sounds amazing and is making me want to play a lot more and change my overall style from "blast beats, d-beats and overall hard hitting" to just more groove and tech oriented stuff.

And I also took of my slave pedal, first time in ten years..
 
It took me a bit to get used to the brightness of the drums, and especially the ringing, although I've tamed that down a bit. Before, I was using a much larger set, that was naturally deader.

The older drums were also too big for me. I'm an average sized guy, not some eight foot monster - LOL
I had no trouble adjusting to the smaller sizes. I much prefer them, and they're all I'd buy now.

The 20" K ride is one of my favorites. I think if I had to pick one best fit, general all around use cymbal to keep, that would be it.

Have fun with the new kit. I'll bet you'll get used to it pretty kit, and probably come to like the advantages it offers.
 
wildbill said:
It took me a bit to get used to the brightness of the drums, and especially the ringing, although I've tamed that down a bit. Before, I was using a much larger set, that was naturally deader.

The older drums were also too big for me. I'm an average sized guy, not some eight foot monster - LOL
I had no trouble adjusting to the smaller sizes. I much prefer them, and they're all I'd buy now.

The 20" K ride is one of my favorites. I think if I had to pick one best fit, general all around use cymbal to keep, that would be it.

Have fun with the new kit. I'll bet you'll get used to it pretty kit, and probably come to like the advantages it offers.
Click to expand...

Oh yea definitely. A lot lighter, more precise, easier to move around. I bought soft bag cases for easy transportation. I'm going to just connect the RT to the boom stand on my crash like I used to with my older kits from years ago. I'm going to have a lot of fun playing with this one.

Last night we had people over and they wanted to hear what we were working on. Too bad they were music snobs (from my guitarists old "metal/core" band) and since we don't play that sort of stuff anymore, they didn't seem to enthused. Oh well, C'est la vie.

I'm still considering a crash/ride for the right side of my kit though I haven't played like that in 5 years. Oh the options.
 
 
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