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Tama Seisakusho

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Neil Peart's Tama Artstar drum kit
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Neil Peart's Tama Artstar drum kit

Tama Seisakusho is a division of Hoshino Gakki MFG. Co. Ltd. that manufactures drums in Nagoya, Japan. Tama's motto is "The Strongest Name in Drums."

Contents

History

The Hoshino Gakki company began in 1908 as a musical instrument sales division of the Hoshino Shoten bookstore company. In 1935 they began manufacturing their own stringed instruments. The company had little presence in the Western world until the mid-1960s.

In 1962 the Tama Seisakusho company was established by the Hoshino Gakki group to manufacture electric guitars and amplifiers. Tama produced a line of guitars that included clones of several popular guitars, including the Martin Dreadnought. At the time they were also manufacturing Star Drums, available in either the Imperial or Royal models.

The Hoshino Gakki Group acquired a small Spanish guitar company named Ibanez in 1965. At that point, they rebranded the guitars in the foreign market under the Ibanez name and continued to produce the Star Drums.

In 1974 Hoshino introduced the Tama brand. They were successful in marketing lower cost Philippine mahogany shelled drums at a much lower price point than the more expensive maple shelled drums offered by Rogers, Ludwig and Slingerland.

Tama was producing kits known in the industry as stencil kits, but this changed in 1978. Tama and Drum Workshop (DW) jointly bought the bankrupt Camco Drum Company. As part of the deal, DW received the Camco tooling and manufacturing equipment while Tama received the Camco name, designs, engineering and patent rights.

At the time, Camco was producing what was thought to be the best drum pedal on the market. DW continued production of the pedal using the original tooling, rebadging it as the DW5000. Tama began production of the same pedal under the Camco name. The Tama version of the Camco pedal is commonly referred to as the Tamco pedal to distinguish it from an original Camco pedal. Tama integrated all the engineering from Camco into their production process and the overall level of quality of their drums increased virtually overnight. The original plan was to market the low end Tama drums to beginners and use the Camco brand to sell high end drums to professional musicians. Unfortunately, even the professionals were starting to use the Tama drums because the low cost of the Asian made drums with the (now) high quality of hardware was a great combination.

Tama discontinued the Camco line, and started producing high end drumsets under the Tama name. The Tamco pedal was eventually rebadged as the Iron Cobra and is still available today. It is one of the most popular bass drum pedals in production.

Tama is always designing new concepts and ideas for drummers. Recent innovations include:

Drumset Lineup

Professional Level

Semi-professional Level Beginner Level Tama Drums are hand made. On the Starclassic drums, the inside of each shell is signed by the person who crafted the drum. The Silk wraps look identical to the vintage 'Onyx' finish found on '50s era Rogers drums. The Glitter wraps look identical to the 'Flakes' finish found on the '30s era Ludwig drums. The Vintage wraps look identical to the vintage 'Marine Pearl' finish found on '50s era Slingerland and Ludwig drums. The Satin wraps look identical to the 'Satin Flame Pearl' finish found on late '60s era Slingerland and Camco drums.

Notable Drummers

Links

 

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