Is Tama a Bad Company?

Everyone has good points for sure! I think most companies do make good sounding kits. C&C is one of the few where I have found very little in the way of bad reviews. And the price is better than say Craviotto, but I agree if they sound the way you want and you love to look at em, you have the right kit...
 
Everyone has good points for sure! I think most companies do make good sounding kits. C&C is one of the few where I have found very little in the way of bad reviews. And the price is better than say Craviotto, but I agree if they sound the way you want and you love to look at em, you have the right kit...

Right on...well put. Its the sound that is pleasing to your ears, not what someone else tells you what the right sound is. All the sound testing and scientific studies in the world won't convince anyone that x drum set is better than y drum set. Custom made, mass produced. Just because someone builds a set that is 15000 bucks, that doesn't mean that its the best ever, and we are all fools for not playing them. What is right for some is not right for others. There are very few companies out there, big and small, that make bad drums. Regardless of being a paid endorser, and getting equipment for free, these pros wouldn't be playing the drums if they didn't sound good. And yes, they need support. Its ok for companies to take ideas from others, that is how capitalism works. Rock on
 
Its interesting how a thread can mutate on this board to people addressing issues that were never raised by the OP

This thread is a classic example,,,, going from "Is Tama a bad company" (based on a thread on another board to argy bargy) about english comprehension and drum sound qualities

A number of people (including me) said they found that thread that the OP based his question on was badly written and as such the point that threads author was trying to make was buried in dross. In my view this issue was raised as the "reason" for Tama being bad was not succinctly, and clearly stated so responses were based on what people assumed the issue to be

As such most of the responses to "is tama a bad company" were along the lines of most large companies have similar flaws and that if you wanted to avoid corporate bullies you would have to buy from a small "artisan" company....SUCH AS Guru and Brady (amongst others). No one in response to the original question said anything about having to buy from those examples to get a decent sound.

Later on a question was raised which drum companies make shells other than Keller, again some examples were given but as I read it no one suggested you had to buy from those companies to get a superior sound.

The examples were given in response to the caveats given...of course you can buy a decent kit for much cheaper....but that was not the question to be answered.

Somehow the thread became a debate about english comprehension and about not having to buy expensive drums (such as Guru / Brady) to get a decent sound.

Threads going off at a tangent is no big deal, it can even expand the topic and make it interesting and fun.

I must say , it seems to me,that the tangents in this thread were worded in such a way as to come across as antagonistic and an attempt to dredge up old issues from threads past.

For mine people who deliberetly bait threads to rehash old "grudges" or make a petty point is kindergarten playground stuff and comes across as pathetic needy pointscoring.

I cant for the life of me understand why the obvious targets of the baiting respond to it, in any way, let alone the in rather predictable manner the responses are made. I would have thought ignoring it was the best way to deal with things. Not responding doesnt mean "you loose" it just spares the rest of us having to put up with this crap.
 
Last edited:
I cant for the life of me understand why the obvious targets of the baiting respond to it, in any way, let alone the in rather predictable manner the responses are made. I would have thought ignoring it was the best way to deal with things. Not responding doesnt mean "you loose" it just spares the rest of us having to put up with this crap.

I completely agree that this thread like many others went off on a tangent. But in my opinion you just added another tangent to the tangent by talking about people baiting others and not qualifying that. Why does every thread I read have to come across as a personal affront to people's opinions? I wish the discussion could be kept to the sound and build and playing of the drum. I don't see anyone baiting anyone. Just people putting in their $0.02 or $2.00. I think the point of the thread to me was, are the bigger companies all just greedy? If so should we support the independents. Just like local farmers or a pub instead of buying bud light and getting food at Walmart. No product is perfect or 100% sustainable but most people at the very least want something unique and fit to their tastes. This is why the Keller shell issue keeps cropping up IMO amongst others. That to me will always be the issue for a lot of drummers. How can I get MY sound while still evolving with how drums are made? What grudges are you talking about?

I do see people on here being very passionate but for once I saw people discussing things and not getting overly personal with maybe the exception being a lot of psychic haters. lol
 
Man, what's with all of the "I just couldn't bear to read it" responses? Have ya'll been on the internet so long that you have NO attention span left? That's my take away from this thread. For people who pound out 2 and 4 for hours on end, this is surprising. I suppose I don't have to worry about taking flack for this post because it's post number 46, which appears to be far beyond the breaking point for many people...

*ducks and runs for cover* :p


TL,DR
..............................
 
Its interesting how a thread can mutate on this board to people addressing issues that were never raised by the OP

This thread is a classic example,,,, going from "Is Tama a bad company" (based on a thread on another board to argy bargy) about english comprehension and drum sound qualities

A number of people (including me) said they found that thread that the OP based his question on was badly written and as such the point that threads author was trying to make was buried in dross. In my view this issue was raised as the "reason" for Tama being bad was not succinctly, and clearly stated so responses were based on what people assumed the issue to be

As such most of the responses to "is tama a bad company" were along the lines of most large companies have similar flaws and that if you wanted to avoid corporate bullies you would have to buy from a small "artisan" company....SUCH AS Guru and Brady (amongst others). No one in response to the original question said anything about having to buy from those examples to get a decent sound.

Later on a question was raised which drum companies make shells other than Keller, again some examples were given but as I read it no one suggested you had to buy from those companies to get a superior sound.

The examples were given in response to the caveats given...of course you can buy a decent kit for much cheaper....but that was not the question to be answered.

Somehow the thread became a debate about english comprehension and about not having to buy expensive drums (such as Guru / Brady) to get a decent sound.

Threads going off at a tangent is no big deal, it can even expand the topic and make it interesting and fun.

I must say , it seems to me,that the tangents in this thread were worded in such a way as to come across as antagonistic and an attempt to dredge up old issues from threads past.

For mine people who deliberetly bait threads to rehash old "grudges" or make a petty point is kindergarten playground stuff and comes across as pathetic needy pointscoring.

I cant for the life of me understand why the obvious targets of the baiting respond to it, in any way, let alone the in rather predictable manner the responses are made. I would have thought ignoring it was the best way to deal with things. Not responding doesnt mean "you loose" it just spares the rest of us having to put up with this crap.

Isn't that why its called a forum? To debate all things drums?
 
I completely agree that this thread like many others went off on a tangent. But in my opinion you just added another tangent to the tangent by talking about people baiting others and not qualifying that. Why does every thread I read have to come across as a personal affront to people's opinions? I wish the discussion could be kept to the sound and build and playing of the drum. I don't see anyone baiting anyone. Just people putting in their $0.02 or $2.00. I think the point of the thread to me was, are the bigger companies all just greedy? If so should we support the independents. Just like local farmers or a pub instead of buying bud light and getting food at Walmart. No product is perfect or 100% sustainable but most people at the very least want something unique and fit to their tastes. This is why the Keller shell issue keeps cropping up IMO amongst others. That to me will always be the issue for a lot of drummers. How can I get MY sound while still evolving with how drums are made? What grudges are you talking about?

I do see people on here being very passionate but for once I saw people discussing things and not getting overly personal with maybe the exception being a lot of psychic haters. lol

Well put. This is a forum. This is where people talk about all things drums.
 
C&C built some drums that intrigued Tama. Tama got C&C to work on a bunch of stuff for them. After a while, C&C wanted Tama to give them a bunch of money to keep doing this work for them (upwards of $90,000, for tooling etc). Tama wouldn't pay. C&C was pissed.

Did I miss anything?
 
sorry for digging an old thread, i'm getting a new drum set, and a guy is selling a what he said is a full Bubinga Tama Starclassic. then i rang him, he said the model is the starclassic bubinga performer. i'm just wondering if he's telling me the truth, because all i found with the performer model it's birch and bubinga combined. Thanks!
 

Attachments

  • $_20-2.JPG
    $_20-2.JPG
    60.5 KB · Views: 267
  • $_20-3.JPG
    $_20-3.JPG
    68.8 KB · Views: 266
sorry for digging an old thread, i'm getting a new drum set, and a guy is selling a what he said is a full Bubinga Tama Starclassic. then i rang him, he said the model is the starclassic bubinga performer. i'm just wondering if he's telling me the truth, because all i found with the performer model it's birch and bubinga combined. Thanks!

Pretend this is a knowledgeable answer.




Because based on history, you're going to do whatever you've already decided to do anyway.
 
sorry for digging an old thread, i'm getting a new drum set, and a guy is selling a what he said is a full Bubinga Tama Starclassic. then i rang him, he said the model is the starclassic bubinga performer. i'm just wondering if he's telling me the truth, because all i found with the performer model it's birch and bubinga combined. Thanks!

Thats the birch/bubinga badge.
 
sorry for digging an old thread, i'm getting a new drum set, and a guy is selling a what he said is a full Bubinga Tama Starclassic. then i rang him, he said the model is the starclassic bubinga performer. i'm just wondering if he's telling me the truth, because all i found with the performer model it's birch and bubinga combined. Thanks!

I'm with Just James. Not going to answer any of your questions since you decided to try and lead us all down the garden path last time.
 
sorry for digging an old thread, i'm getting a new drum set, and a guy is selling a what he said is a full Bubinga Tama Starclassic. then i rang him, he said the model is the starclassic bubinga performer. i'm just wondering if he's telling me the truth, because all i found with the performer model it's birch and bubinga combined. Thanks!

Why not start a new thread instead?

http://www.tamadrum.co.jp/product/gallery.php?area=2&id=2&cp_id=49&year=2014

You can always ask for the serial and check it against the tama site.
 
Well that was a crazy story...gonnna have to save this for further examination...
Anywho you should keep in mind that Hishono Gakki legally owns the companies, he's not hand making everything. Also there are a lot of builders with in the company that are designing these instruments.
 
It does help to know that Hoshino Gakki isn't a person...
My bad, hard to follow when there we're so many Hoshinos. I knew that was the last name, but typed Hoshino Gakki because that's what I read (internet always lying to me)
Ok, a company ,Hoshino Gakki, owns two other companies, Ibanez and Tama, in which a few people did something slightly wrong(from what I read so far). No reason to put down all of Tama.
 
Hm...

In response to the question, my answer would be no more or less than any other company, drum or no...

There's been a stigma with Tama since the 80's, more or less. 80% of their artist roster is hard rock and every kind of metal drummer, and many drummers who don't know what's what (when you start playing, for ex.) looking to buy a set of drums say "I don't want a Tama kit because all the meathead metal drummers play them." This stigma is something Tama has wanted to get rid of ever since they lost Elvin as an endorser.

Keep in mind, NONE of this has to do with the sound of the drums, which sound great, for the record. I've owned three kits and might get a B/B kit in a year or so. I'm on a Yamaha kick as of late, but I digress...

So, when Tama has artists like Stewart Copeland, John Blackwell, Adam Deitch, Alan Evans, guys who are not metal drummers by trade, it helps them present their image as one of "diversity". Genre diversity. It's a big deal that Billy Cobham is back with them; they have a face with which they can market "Star" drums with. Even though most drummers younger than 30 are saying "Billy who?" But anyway...

So, you can see when Tama lost an endorser like Joey Waronker, why they went apes*it. At least I see it, from Bill's story. Think about it from the other end of Bill's side: they're hearing about this drum maker and the artists on his "roster" are young drummers that they KNOW would boost Tama's image and, once again, reduce the stigma. See? We have young up-and-coming drummers playing our gear, not only these metal guys, and not only these old guys (it sucks to say, but people actually think like this about greats like Phillips and Aronoff initially, when it should dawn on them that these greats have been playing the same brand of gear for 30+ years so there's a track record of a drum company's reliability when you have less turnover). They saw Mr. Cardwell as a threat, and though it's a "David vs. Goliath" story at best, Tama was looking to see how they could gain competitive advantage. They have the leverage. They can chew up and spit guys like Bill Cardwell out without a second thought. Steal a couple of pointers to make our drums better, and there's no recourse. Even if Bill didn't show them his drums, you'd think they wouldn't eventually figure it out?? Didn't Tama just celebrate its 40th this year??

That's my takeaway from the GN thread. Bill Cardwell thought he had leverage when he was asked to be "AMG" to Tama's "Mercedes". He could've never worked on their terms, and would've just grinned and beared it and finish the contract had Tama agreed to his demand. Last I checked though, he's making his own shells now too! I could be wrong, but he may have bought a few Jasper molds as of late?

You can ask the same question of other drum makers:

Is Yamaha a bad company for ending their relationship with Sakae? Are they also a bad company for buying and besmirching the Rogers name? What it looks like they've done is: by putting really BAD gear under the Rogers name, effectively makes it a bad brand all around. Even the old Rogers drums that everyone fawns over, the hope is that it will stigmatize THOSE old era drums because what's being put out as new is crap. Same with Camco. Gibson tried to bring back Slingerland, but failed. Add to it, how much more resale value old Tama and Yamaha kits retain because there's that Camco/Rogers stigma out there....put out there by the very brands whose name they bought. Some credit due to Dunnett making George Way drums that actually respect and pay tribute to the old drum makers of the past. I know many probably don't give a wit about him, but to me the drums he's making speak volumes.

Competitive advantage, plain and simple.
 
Back
Top