Yamaha Drums

Thats a nice beast.

Gotta love oak.

Reunited with a part if my first Red Oak rig from '07. Did some nice things with it.

Lucky the owner wanted to trade the kick from my 22 and got the t12" tom with it.

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Finally picked up the Cherry BCA's. Polished them up a bit, put die cast hoops on the snare (zinc, not aluminum). They sound great, power toms or not.
The bass drum is pure perfection. Evans EMAD batter with the Remo Black Ambassador reso+4" hole. Nothing inside.

The two rack toms will be going under the knife for a little depth reduction soon…down to 10x7 and 12x8. Decided to leave the floor tom and the bass drum alone, they are damn near perfect.

The power hoops are fine, but I want to try something different on thee toms. Maybe single flange? Admittedly, in this case - it's mostly about the look. You have to really work at trying to make these sound bad; I'm sure anything would sound good here.

Neal
 

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Finally picked up the Cherry BCA's. Polished them up a bit, put die cast hoops on the snare (zinc, not aluminum). They sound great, power toms or not.
The bass drum is pure perfection. Evans EMAD batter with the Remo Black Ambassador reso+4" hole. Nothing inside.

The two rack toms will be going under the knife for a little depth reduction soon…down to 10x7 and 12x8. Decided to leave the floor tom and the bass drum alone, they are damn near perfect.

The power hoops are fine, but I want to try something different on thee toms. Maybe single flange? Admittedly, in this case - it's mostly about the look. You have to really work at trying to make these sound bad; I'm sure anything would sound good here.

Neal

Ah, nothing says classic Yamaha like cherry wood! Be sure to post up some post-op pics of the toms Neal. In the meantime, perhaps you can use them for an 80s tribute type of gig? ;-)
 
Finally picked up the Cherry BCA's. Polished them up a bit, put die cast hoops on the snare (zinc, not aluminum). They sound great, power toms or not.
The bass drum is pure perfection. Evans EMAD batter with the Remo Black Ambassador reso+4" hole. Nothing inside.

The two rack toms will be going under the knife for a little depth reduction soon…down to 10x7 and 12x8. Decided to leave the floor tom and the bass drum alone, they are damn near perfect.

The power hoops are fine, but I want to try something different on thee toms. Maybe single flange? Admittedly, in this case - it's mostly about the look. You have to really work at trying to make these sound bad; I'm sure anything would sound good here.

Neal

Hey Neal, 'bout time you got this kit :) Congrats, they look beautiful! Good decision to leave the floor tom and kick alone if you are happy with them. Enjoy, and good luck with them.

Bruce
 
Question about Yamaha's Vintage Natural finish :

This has been discussed here and there, but wanted to ask owners or people with a long term relationship with this finish - has your Vintage Natural finish turned darker golden/tan colour or has it turned more of an orange hue?

Does this depend of the maple…or do the birch shells look different? Is it just the lighting in various pictures?

I am looking at a few options of the VN finish, but I'm not really interested if they are going to turn orange. I wonder if there is a way to 'encourage' them to brown/tan rather than orange? Tung oil?

Wildbill - I like the shade of your VN MCAN's. If I knew they would wind up like that, I would do it.

Sorry for all the questions, but someone out there knows about this…

Neal
 
Hey Neal, don't have a full kit in VN, but do have several snares in this finish (both beech & maple)... From what I can tell the finish does go darker over time (but it does go through a bit of an orange period).... it does take time for the finish to ultimately darken ...as in years...
 
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I wonder if there is a way to 'encourage' them to brown/tan rather than orange?

...exposure to sunlight seems to accelerate the darkening process...the color palette seems to move from a combination of yellow/orange hues to a combination of cinnamon/auburn/tobacco/brown hues...
 
...exposure to sunlight seems to accelerate the darkening process...the color palette seems to move from a combination of yellow/orange hues to a combination of cinnamon/auburn/tobacco/brown hues...

Oh yes, it's that cinnamon/auburn/tan/brown that I so love.
I wonder if ultraviolet light would produce the same accelerated aging as sunlight.

Neal
 
Well, lots of Yamaha news over here.
First up, my BCA Cherry Wood toms (with stained interiors) were cut down today…went from a 10x9 and a 12x10 to a boutique 10" x6 3/8" and 12" x 7 3/4" . I will pick them up in a couple days, in the meantime we have proof:

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics (wasn't me this time).

They were cut from the batter side…the vents were kind of in the way if taken from the reso side, this was easier. For any of you with the gold glued-on badges, I can report that there is no fading of the finish under the badges if you have to move them (like I did, had to move them down about 3 inches). Just be patient and use a hairdryer, and a very thin pry/scraper thing and they will wiggle off eventually. About 10 minutes to get each badge off, my drum restoration guy says.
He's calling these "Birch Custom Custom"
I am stoked. I think they look awesome. Full pictures with the whole kit when I get them.
 

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Ah yes, and now the other news…my vintage D20 kit is on the way here, should have them in about a week.

And lastly…I think next on the chopping block is going to be these. BCAN in White Marine Pearl. Same deal as above, I think I'd like a 10 x 6 3/8 and a 12 x 7 3/4 in these.

The floor tom is already a hanging 14x12 that the previous owner very poorly installed those G.D. floor tom leg mounts , using the biggest, ugliest ones he could find and putting one of the legs under the F$%^&&**!! badge. I think we can fix this. Maybe.

I am actually thinking about making this kit a custom nesting kit, like the Hip Gigs but better. Cut the 14" so the 10" fits inside it as well, and not use the 12". So 10 inside the 14 inside the 18 and I have a 13x4 snare that would go with it all. Oh yeah, the 18" is a floor tom, 18x16 in Amber Fade so that will need to be wrapped.
So many projects this year.
I have something else on the way too but don't want to say until I get them here.

Yeehamaya!
 

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Re: THE YAMAHA DRUMS THREAD

This is my first post and I'm brand new to Yamaha. I gotta say I am absolutely ecstatic about my new used Custom Absolute Birch/Maple mix drums.

I was looking for something that had a vintage sound but also had power and these deliver in every way. It's true that beautiful drums make you want to play more.

I walked into the local drum shop and saw these. Like a hot girl I was instantly attracted. Once I played them - had a conversation with the girl - I was hooked. They are used but I can't really see how. The drums are in such incredible shape.

Have any of you seen this wrap? I think it's called Mint Candy. I love it but I know some will hate it. As long as there no gray area I'm happy.

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Did you get those at A Drummer's Tradition in San Rafael? Only asking because I saw the exact same BCA/MCA in mint candy on their website yesterday, funny to think of another one knocking around somewhere. I like unusual finishes so I think it rocks - congratulations and enjoy those things!
 
Did you get those at A Drummer's Tradition in San Rafael? Only asking because I saw the exact same BCA/MCA in mint candy on their website yesterday, funny to think of another one knocking around somewhere. I like unusual finishes so I think it rocks - congratulations and enjoy those things!

Hey geezer, I did get them at Drummer's Tradition. Thanks. I love them.
 
Very nice! How (may I ask) did you come up with the depth sizes - a special ratio?

Thanks! I just deferred to my drum restoration guy...the depths have something to do with having enough room to clear the old holes from lugs, mounts and /or vents. I do think the resulting depths are, in fact, a ratio of some kind - but not by my design.

I've done this 'cutting down' thing a few times with him; I tell him how much I want taken off- I drop off the drums. He figures out cut lines and uses masking tape to mark off all points of interest. Then I see the pictures and we discuss everything before anything is cut. I was more than fine with those depths.

The big concern with these was if there was going to be any fading of the finish under the badges, because they had to move down a fair bit after being cut.
Luckily, I had a matching snare drum, presumably made at the same time as the rest of the kit...and since the snare's badge position wouldn't change (and easy to replace/re glue) , it was the guinea pig for this project. No fading under the snare badge , so that was a green light to remove badges on the toms.

Sorry for the book but I just want to shed as much light as possible on the sometimes scary art of cutting down drums...

Neal
 
Actually, just figured out, the ratio of depth to diameter is 1.56 : 1 for the 10" and 1.54 for the 12" drum. That's pretty close to the Golden Ratio of 1.61. Hmmm….

Neal
 
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