Norma drums

tamadrummer132

Silver Member
I found this snare drum in the garbage, and the name brand was Norma.

I figured it was some lame beginner no-name brand, but i wanted to run it by you guys to see if you have ever heard of em.

englighten me?
 
haha..i got an old 1/2 size acoustic guitar that is brand is Norma. it sucks beond belief..lol dont know if they have anything in comon...

I found this snare drum in the garbage, and the name brand was Norma.

I figured it was some lame beginner no-name brand, but i wanted to run it by you guys to see if you have ever heard of em.

englighten me?

Alex
 
You'll find a lot of info. on cheap 60's Japanese drums here: http://georgesdrumshop.com/museum.asp George is a forum member also. I've run into a few "Norma" kits over the years. Typical "firewood" or "cheesewood". Hey, back in the 60's, they were great drums if you were a kid. Bein' a 60's Ludwig kit new cost about 1/2 the price of a new car, that was about all anyone could afford.
 
It was in the garbage for a reason. My memory of Norma drums is that they were quite inexpensive drums imported from Japan and sold either in music stores as an entry level/kiddie set or more likely in department stores and catalog sellers. Very low quality components and as I recall a couple of students had these things and were a devil to try to tune with any kind of reasonable sound.
 
haha..i got an old 1/2 size acoustic guitar that is brand is Norma. it sucks beond belief..lol dont know if they have anything in comon...



Alex

Good lawd, I thought I was the only one saddled with one of those menaces! One day, I decided to try to fix the hideous action by filing down the saddle. I ended up removing the saddle entirely, and slotting the bridge. The action is still 1/4" @ the 12th fret.

Poo.
 
I remember when I got my first drum, a Norma Snare Drum, for Christmas back in 1969. I so wanted a Ludwig snare but due to cost, my Mother (who's name was Norma) thought it had to be awesome and she didn't have the money. Unfortunately it was not great, but it did the job. Since that time, I've purchased Pearl, DW and Roland kits. I mentioned that I wish I had my old original Norma snare drum back as it had my Mother's name on it and would be nice to have for the memories. Well...we celebrated Christmas early and what did my wife do...buy my original Norma (well only the snare and bass, the floor tom was Stewart and bass tom was a Dixie) kit back from the kid I sold it to. Corny story...but a couple great memories in my life because of Norma drums.
 
My first drum set was a 60's Norma blue sparkle four piece. They may not be very well known or sought after, but they were actually quite good instruments. I got mine at a garage sale in 1993. Norma was a US brand for the Japanese company, Taisco. Most of their drums were sold under the name Del Rey, but some were Norma. In spite of the cheesy looking logo (I have a deep disdain for music notes as decor) some of them were quite great. I have a Norma classical that plays, sounds, and records beautifully. Taisco was primarily a guitar company. They made all sorts of stuff you're probably familiar with. They sold a lot of lemons for sure; cheap, basically toy versions of instruments were a big cash cow for them in the catalog sales world. They did make some pretty nice stuff though. I've owned a lot of silvertones and kays and things like that through the years that I've loved playing.
The drums that they sold were sub contracted out to fill up the catalogs with instruments. So the quality was likely hit and miss I'd imagine, but I can tell you this: I would pay every dollar in my bank account to get that first kit back. It sounded great. It looked great. I was a young, dumb kid when I got rid of it and the guy at the music store eagerly gave me $300 for it. I wish I could track it down. The memories are worth it alone, but the things actually were pretty rad.
 
I have a blue sparkle Norma snare drum and like the sound compared to my kit snare, but I like vintage stuff so that’s part of it.
 
It was in the garbage for a reason. Very low quality components and as I recall a couple of students had these things and were a devil to try to tune with any kind of reasonable sound.

See, I'm "That Guy" who would get one of these (out of the dumpster) and pull an RdavidR and try & jazz it up.
Not $400 worth, mind you, but I'd accept the challenge to tune it right & get it sounding halfway decent.

I doubt I'm alone in this...
 
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