80's Tama Imperialstar mastercarft 14 x 6.5 snare

Thesilverfox

Junior Member
My uncle has a snare " 80's Tama Imperialstar mastercarft 14 x 6.5 snare aluminium" he wants to give me, all i need is to pay shipping to get it to my house. Am i lucky, did i score a prize or what?

What kind of snare is this?
is it good quality?
Does it sound good?

i e-mailed him some pics i seen on the net, and he told me that was the same snare.

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I truly have no idea of the quality, but it looks freakin sweet. I would love to have an uncle who gave me free drums randomly :)
 
Those are great drums. Loud as hell and sensitive as well. They sound great with a coated ambassador. I used one "back in the day."
 
If you dont want it, i'll have it!

It probably settling around the mark of Metal/Rock drum, a deep steel shell.
 
My uncle has a snare " 80's Tama Imperialstar mastercarft 14 x 6.5 snare aluminium" he wants to give me, all i need is to pay shipping to get it to my house. Am i lucky, did i score a prize or what?

What kind of snare is this?
is it good quality?
Does it sound good?

i e-mailed him some pics i seen on the net, and he told me that was the same snare.

7b28_1.JPG

I don't know for certain that this is an Imperialstar drum; it is a Mastercraft Steel drum by Tama and was the standard snare on some of their drumsets in the 1980s. I would say that this is a mid 1980s drum as the lugs are a less generic design than what was used in the early 80s. I am guessing that the model number is 8056 and this based on a 1980 Tama catalog. The quality is very good to great as this was made during Tama's heyday! It looks as though it came with Die Cast hoops too! I think what you have is a desirable snare drum indeed! I would not have turned it down! Please ask your uncle if he would like to have another nephew! I would like to see more pics though!


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com


http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=drummermikemccraw
 
Great guys, I'll post picks when i get it.

lets just says it seems quite supeior to my pearl forum snare LOL.
 
Si i finally got it yesterday. Judging by the serial number i'm guessing its from 1982 ?
It's a little pitted and has wear and tear but it will clean up real good. I put a Evans genera dry and man does this snare project. It has some serious crack it and the rim shots heart my ears they are so loud, but it sounds really good in its own way, like nothing i've ever heard before. It has a quality feel to it. I am thrilled about this snare. Its cool to see how snares were made 25 years ago. It's definitely a keeper.

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You stole my drum! J/K That is an AWESOME snare. I love mine, it can be really "cracky" or really warm sounding. It is very loud and has a really good rebound if you tune it just right. Get a REMO Coated Ambassador Head, i have it sounds pretty dang good. Mine is a little on the rusty side though, i need to fix that....

Peace
AGR
 
Hey There!

My nameis Ed and I live in New Jersey, USA. I have the Tama Imperialstar drumkit from 1982, and i LOVE my snare drum and the sound it makes.

Enjoy it!
 
Is this the Tama 8056 steel snare drum? If so,.....Bill Bruford used it for King Crimson in the 80's. I just bought my first brand new Ludwig supra-phonic LM402 (14 x 6.5). Can you believe I got it for only $305.00 plus tax at Guitar Center???!!!!! hahaha....Damn I'm good!!! LOL
Btw.....I am in a King Crimson tribute band called, The Great Deceivers. We are in California.
 
Si i finally got it yesterday. Judging by the serial number i'm guessing its from 1982 ?
It's a little pitted and has wear and tear but it will clean up real good. I put a Evans genera dry and man does this snare project. It has some serious crack it and the rim shots heart my ears they are so loud, but it sounds really good in its own way, like nothing i've ever heard before. It has a quality feel to it. I am thrilled about this snare. Its cool to see how snares were made 25 years ago. It's definitely a keeper.

tamalogocropped.jpg


tamacropped.jpg


tamacropped1.jpg

I would check the remaining original lugs for fracture. The internal lug bracing on these lugs were/is weak. What can you do if there's cracking? Not much really. If just distortion, you can spin them around to take whatever head you tune-up higher. You can also put super glue in any lug-support cracks, it'll help.

I don't know for certain that this is an Imperialstar drum; it is a Mastercraft Steel drum by Tama and was the standard snare on some of their drumsets in the 1980s.


Its an Imperialstar alright, US catalog would have it named King Beat. The lock on the internal muffler should be plastic. 3mm die cast hoops had marginal plating, highly prone to scratching. The roller beds on the strainer were/are self adjusting. You need long snares to fit the works. Tama touted their nylon lug inserts on these drums, but they just hold the nut, worlds apart from Yamaha's nylon insert.

Otherwise solid drum with the lugs being the achilles heel. Pick shows two lugs as replaced.
 
Exactly! This was one of my first snares, and I quickly broke all of the connector posts on the lugs. Mine had the shorter lugs. I think this was a common problem with Tama snare lugs back in the 80's, like with the freedom lugs. I ended up replacing the lugs with some cheap Pearl style lugs that fit the holes exactly, and I never broke any of those. I see someone did that very same thing in one of the pictures. Personally, I never liked the sound of this snare, particularly after I got different types of snares and compared them.
 
Nice drum! I had this one, too. It was my one and only for 12 years until about two years ago when I sold it. Now, 4 snare drums later, I wish I still had that beast... I never had any problems with it, btw.
 
I don't know for certain that this is an Imperialstar drum; it is a Mastercraft Steel drum by Tama and was the standard snare on some of their drumsets in the 1980s.


Its an Imperialstar alright, US catalog would have it named King Beat. The lock on the internal muffler should be plastic. 3mm die cast hoops had marginal plating, highly prone to scratching. The roller beds on the strainer were/are self adjusting. You need long snares to fit the works. Tama touted their nylon lug inserts on these drums, but they just hold the nut, worlds apart from Yamaha's nylon insert.

Otherwise solid drum with the lugs being the achilles heel. Pick shows two lugs as replaced.

It is NOT a King Beat snare drum. Its the Mastercraft part #8056. Also Tama never referred to these as Imperialstar snares. But they did badge them all with Imperialstar tags just like they tagged all the other Mastercraft snares with a Superstar badge but they are not Superstar snare drums. If you go on the Tama website and look through there catalogs you can see the snare in there early 80's catalogs. Getting back to this snare drum. The King Beat has a snare strainer that has a round loop on the end and it fits only that strainer which is found on the King Beat. That is not what is on this drum. The Mastercraft and Powerlines use the SS2 strainer which is what this has. It has a snare that is longer than the shell and is square on the ends, no loop. The differences between the Mastercraft and Powerline are the Mastercraft has the roller strainer which I see on this one. Powerline didn't have it. Also the longer lugs are on the Mastercraft. All the snare drums shared the same seamless shell. The Mastercraft was Tama's top of the line chrome snare, then the King Beat then the Powerline.
The longer lugs were high tension and didn't break that often. The shorter ones were a problem. I've had several of the Tama Mastercraft snares that I bought new in the 80's and they are still running strong with no problems ever. Very well made.
 
It is NOT a King Beat snare drum. Its the Mastercraft part #8056. Also Tama never referred to these as Imperialstar snares. But they did badge them all with Imperialstar tags just like they tagged all the other Mastercraft snares with a Superstar badge but they are not Superstar snare drums. If you go on the Tama website and look through there catalogs you can see the snare in there early 80's catalogs. Getting back to this snare drum. The King Beat has a snare strainer that has a round loop on the end and it fits only that strainer which is found on the King Beat. That is not what is on this drum. The Mastercraft and Powerlines use the SS2 strainer which is what this has. It has a snare that is longer than the shell and is square on the ends, no loop. The differences between the Mastercraft and Powerline are the Mastercraft has the roller strainer which I see on this one. Powerline didn't have it. Also the longer lugs are on the Mastercraft. All the snare drums shared the same seamless shell. The Mastercraft was Tama's top of the line chrome snare, then the King Beat then the Powerline.
The longer lugs were high tension and didn't break that often. The shorter ones were a problem. I've had several of the Tama Mastercraft snares that I bought new in the 80's and they are still running strong with no problems ever. Very well made.



Thesilverfox's
drum here has the roller-action strainer, if he put up another pic showing the bottom you'd see it clearly. In the third photo the roller casing is visible. The snare wire pictured isn't original. The original would have been oversized and yes the 'King Beat' was cataloged as having a parallel-action strainer.

As far as 'Mastercraft' a few lines- Artwood, Artstar, Bell Brass etc. came out of that shadow name with their own tags and some still live today. Nowhere on the drum itself does it say 'Mastercraft' though. Call them what you want, but despite the catalog listing as Mastercraft, these drums were usually referred to and sold as their badge name.

I've owned Imperialstar with both parallel action and roller action strainer's. The long lug pic'd below is one of many off of those drums which failed.

Note how the mounting hole's and their supports are bent/cracked. This is common with any pot metal lug when high(er) tension is applied over time. If you have one of these 80's Tama drums and you tune high(er), chances are great some of the lugs are distorted.
 

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Thesilverfox's
drum here has the roller-action strainer, if he put up another pic showing the bottom you'd see it clearly. In the third photo the roller casing is visible. The snare wire pictured isn't original. The original would have been oversized and yes the 'King Beat' was cataloged as having a parallel-action strainer.

As far as 'Mastercraft' a few lines- Artwood, Artstar, Bell Brass etc. came out of that shadow name with their own tags and some still live today. Nowhere on the drum itself does it say 'Mastercraft' though. Call them what you want, but despite the catalog listing as Mastercraft, these drums were usually referred to and sold as their badge name.

I've owned Imperialstar with both parallel action and roller action strainer's. The long lug pic'd below is one of many off of those drums which failed.

Note how the mounting hole's and their supports are bent/cracked. This is common with any pot metal lug when high(er) tension is applied over time. If you have one of these 80's Tama drums and you tune high(er), chances are great some of the lugs are distorted.

I am a little confused. Are you agreeing that this snare is not a King Beat?

I can see the strainer in this thread is a roller action. That makes it the SS2, not the Parallel which makes this particular drum a Mastercraft. The King Beat parallel strainer is different. I will post the pic. The strainers are not interchangable. You can see in the picture of the catalog that the parallel strainer has a hoop on the end. The Mastercarft strainers with the double roller do not have this feature.

I know everyone refers to these as Imperialstar but it blurs the differences of the snares. They are all not the same. I beleive the Bell Brass has a Superstar badge but I certainly would not refer to it as such. I have the Rosewood and it has the Superstar badge. My Artstar cordia has an Artstar badge.

I wonder how damaged my lugs are. I never took them apart (never needed to) but I can see where damage would occur. You are correct in that pot metal is not very strong.
 

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I am a little confused. Are you agreeing that this snare is not a King Beat?

I can see the strainer in this thread is a roller action. That makes it the SS2, not the Parallel which makes this particular drum a Mastercraft. The King Beat parallel strainer is different. I will post the pic. The strainers are not interchangable. You can see in the picture of the catalog that the parallel strainer has a hoop on the end. The Mastercarft strainers with the double roller do not have this feature.


"The Mastercraft and Powerlines use the SS2 strainer which is what this has".- Post #14

Imperialstar (Mastercraft) and Powerline use different strainers. Part #'s aside, the Powerline pic you show is not a Roller Action Strainer. Thesilverfox's drum has a roller Action Strainer (not the same a Powerlines). All the drums under the 'Mastercraft' umbrella use Roller Action strainers.

For all practical purposes Thesilverfoxs drum could be called an Imperialstar, or Mastercraft. If no Tama catalogs existed, it would be called an Imperialstar, which makes perfect sense given that's what badge it wears.



I know everyone refers to these as Imperialstar but it blurs the differences of the snares. They are all not the same. I beleive the Bell Brass has a Superstar badge but I certainly would not refer to it as such. I have the Rosewood and it has the Superstar badge. My Artstar cordia has an Artstar badge.

"Nowhere on the drum itself does it say 'Mastercraft' though."-Post # 15

"... and yes the 'King Beat' was cataloged as having a parallel-action strainer". post #15
 
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I have one of these snares (Mastercraft series according to the original catalog). Anyway, never had a problem with it till a few days ago. The internal muffler knob (inner guts) cracked. Knobs are in perfect condition however (I will post pictures of the snare shortly).

Does anyone know where I can get parts (internal muffler assembly)? I would like to keep it original if possible, especially since the drum is in excellent condition.
 
I am a little confused. Are you agreeing that this snare is not a King Beat?

I can see the strainer in this thread is a roller action. That makes it the SS2, not the Parallel which makes this particular drum a Mastercraft. The King Beat parallel strainer is different. I will post the pic. The strainers are not interchangable. You can see in the picture of the catalog that the parallel strainer has a hoop on the end. The Mastercarft strainers with the double roller do not have this feature.

I know everyone refers to these as Imperialstar but it blurs the differences of the snares. They are all not the same. I beleive the Bell Brass has a Superstar badge but I certainly would not refer to it as such. I have the Rosewood and it has the Superstar badge. My Artstar cordia has an Artstar badge.

I wonder how damaged my lugs are. I never took them apart (never needed to) but I can see where damage would occur. You are correct in that pot metal is not very strong.

That's strange. The version I have has the lugs and strainer of the powerline, but it also has rollers on both sides and die cast hoops. Maybe a retro fit? And I don't see any rollers on the Kingbeats in this picture. Those strainers look like the Japanese supersensitive strainers of the late 70's I've seen on some Pearl snares of that era. I'm sure they must've changed up the hardware through the years. BTW this drum weighs a ton.
 
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