YAMAHA CLUB CUSTOM

ashezzy

Junior Member
I can get one of these for what seems to be a pretty good price on ebay.
anyone got any opinions/reviews of them
thanks,
 
I own a set in Black Swirl lacquer 10/12/14/20 with matching snare. I really like these drums a lot. The quality is excellent, every detail is perfect. They have more warmth than my Recording Customs and are a it drier than a maple shell kit. They have a very woody resonant sound. They tune up extremely easily, take well to both single ply and two ply heads. The bass drum has a huge sound with the stock heads ( clear PS3 batter and smooth white PS3 resonant side). The toms came with Remo coated Ambassadors with clear ambassadors on the resonant side I swapped out the batter heads for Evans G Plus (G12) white coated and these thicken up the tom sound and add some durability and additional warmth.
The snare - the person I bought it from swappee the 1.6 mm triple flange hoops for diecast hoops. I generally dislike diecast hoops, but they work fantastic on this drum. I changed the batter head for an Evans Power Center reverse dot. Can you say Crack! This snare will take your head off ! Off center hits are still very resonant and the reverse dot really focusses the sound and punch of the snare drum.

The lacquer finish is gorgeous and looks even better in person. The finish is unique to Yamaha and very labor intensive. The shells are made of a Japanese hardwood called Kapur. This wood is harder than rock maple on the Janka scale. It is not the most beautiful wood as the grain is subdued and the actual color of the wood is similar to african mahogany. Yamaha has out an extremely light sealer on the interiors, so when touched with your hand, you can feel the nap of the wood. The combination of the nap and the R3 bearing edge ( a 60 degree or 30 degree depending on how you measure it) which has a slight roundover. The edge is very similar in design to a Gretsch USA Custom edge. The hoops are lightweight 1.6mm triple flange hoops. I personally prefer these lighter weight hoops.
They open up the drums and sound great when playing rimshots on the toms for Latin numbers.

These are great drums and I wholeheartedly recommend these for someone looking for a kit with a vintage sounding vibe with modern features.
 
Just bought a Yamaha Club Custom in 22, 16, 12 sizes in the dark wood finish. This is a fantastic kit. As the previous reviewer noted, it has a wonderful warm vintage sound with modern construction. I've combined mine with my Yamaha Roy Haynes signature copper snare and they work great together.

With Yamaha discontinuing this line after only a few years, there won't be many of them around. I would recommend looking carefully at this kit if you are looking for something with that vintage sound. Very well made, looks nice, and sounds great.
 
And now the new ones are old, too. :-(
 
Would like to see this thread stick around for a while...

I picked up a set of the new Club Customs - 12, 16, 22, with the matching snare for a great price. Sitting neglected in an upstairs room of a music shop in Western Australia. Amazing drums, and the best stock snare I've ever heard in my life :) Now I'm on the hunt for a 10" and a 14" tom to round out the set!

I've got a set of Recording Customs, and between the two you can do just about anything.
 

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Nice looking kit bachbeat!... I wouldn't mind finding a clean set of CC's, preferably either in dark wood or the black swirl finish you have...
 
Nice looking kit bachbeat!... I wouldn't mind finding a clean set of CC's, preferably either in dark wood or the black swirl finish you have...

They are certainly amazing. Yamaha markets them as a 'Modern Vintage' kit (or *did* market them when they were still being produced, I suppose), and I think they're spot on in that regard. Warm and round sounds, with plenty of attack and projection, too. Rather than being a jack-of all trades, master of none - it's just a master of all ;)

A little more reading on the newer incarnation of Club Customs for the thread, if you haven't seen them already... The posts are pretty meandering (which I don't mind at all), but what you bypass with this is the *copy/paste* approach from Yamaha's marketing copy that most websites default to.


Part 1
http://www.tbrucewittet.com/2012/07...el-weight-build-and-cosmetics”-t-bruce-witte/

Part 2
http://www.tbrucewittet.com/2012/07...tom-kit-with-24”-bass-drum-its-good-how-good/
 
These are such nice drums. Love Whittetts reviews. They meander allover the place but you get the gist, and learn all that trivia at the same time.
 
Beautiful looking kit, congrats! I have a Club Custom kit in bop sizes, Dark Wood finish and I love that thing, constantly blown away by just how great it sounds, and it always gets compliments when I play out with it.
 
Great kit! Modern classics I say.
I have same kit , Black Swirl in 8/10/12/14/16/22/14.

I got to hear them in front of several thousand people through a big PA - I rented my kit to Nile Rodgers for a show at the Jazz Festival this summer. His drummer ( Ralph Rolle) was looking for a Yamaha kit with very specific sizes, just happened to be what I had.

They are not popular in backline riders - but they sure sounded and looked great :
 

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Great looking kit, I was surprised to see that Yamaha used 1.6mm hoops rather than the 2.3mm hoops? Was this done so the shell can resonate more with the Kapur wood being so hard? Just curious.
 
Yamaha makes better drums than I gave them credit for. I am in the middle of rehabbing/restoring a set of Stage Custom Advantages circa 2005 with the birch/mahogany/falkata shells. Its an intermediate level kit from what I can tell online. Given the abuse they clearly saw followed by years of banishment and neglect in garages and basements they are in excellent condition. Shells are in round, edges are in pretty good shape and the chrome is in remarkable shape given the layer of crud I cleaned off of them. I fully expected much more rust but it has been minimal. A good cleaning plus polishing compound and wax has the shells in good shape. Same with the hardware. When I am done someone is going to get a very nice kit.
 
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If I was Yamaha I'd do anything to bring these back.
 
Sweet kit, love that black swirl. They had a blow out a couple years ago of these kits when they were discontinued. I remember they had a bunch in blue and orange swirl. I was so tempted to grab one but my wallet wasn't on board. Enjoy!
 
Great looking kit, I was surprised to see that Yamaha used 1.6mm hoops rather than the 2.3mm hoops? Was this done so the shell can resonate more with the Kapur wood being so hard? Just curious.

Steve Jordan designed the CC's with a vintage tone in mind.
The rounded bearing edges pair nicely with 1.6mm hoops.
I love my Club Customs. And the snare is one of the best I've played.
 

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