Mine neither...;)

Thanks, and I just noticed that you're new here, so pleased to meet'cha!

By the way Trout, did you find out what you were looking for?

Just curious...

Yes fishwaltz I'm fairly new to the forum, been drumming for about almost 20 years, of which I've been a Yammie fan for many years. Those RA drums sound nice and fat in my opinion. I just grabbed a 1979 YD-9000 kit, cleaned it up and it sounds fabulous!

Thanks for asking mate. Sort of. Thanks for the replies too. The story is that a store is selling a 9000 series secondhand, ex-hire. I have a friend who knows I'm interested so he gave me the heads up. I went to look yesterday. I was surprised by how light they are and rather simply made. Only one had a decent head and it sounded great - boom. I want a kit 22/12/13/16 to gig with. I don't want a vintage sound for this band. I want a modern sound because that's the type of music they're playing. They have 2 of these kits and one is in those sizes, standard depths. The problem is that they are selling them for a studio and they want $1500. These drums have scratches and the chrome is not great. Might clean up ok, but they would need a respray. I ran this past my wife (see General Questions) and she surprised me by sayin it was too much money for a secondhand kit of black drums (I currently gig on a black 1985 Pearl GLX kit, 10/12/14/22) These are beautiful drums but I need a 12"/13" mounted and the 13" Pearl is 13 x 11 - I don't want power toms. Also the Pearl hardware is excellent but too heavy. The store also has a Sakae Trilogy (I already own Rogers drums;) and a Road Anew set (which is their cheaper line) but the latter is in the sizes I want. I really like their hardware and build quality. I'm not getting any younger. It's probably time to sell some kits and invest in a new kit. If I buy a Sakae Almighty in the sizes and configuration I want - who knows - it might be a future MIJ classic featured here. All I know is - Sakae are making drum kits which feature workmanship and attention to detail I've not seen in many years. If I can get the dealer to come down to earthly levels on the price, I'm going to go for it. That way, I'll be getting a new RC kit from the people that made them for Yamaha for all those years.

Hello Trout,

after reading your last post and your thread in General Questions, I only can recommend to go and grab ´em if they´re 9000GAs in black and standard sizes (shell depth). Meanwhile they´re hard to come by kits - at least in Germany - and have become a MIJ classic already.

There´s something special about these black GAs of the "early years" that I´ve been discussing shortly with another drummer who also owns a Recording kit in red with power shells. He told me that he now regrets not buying a black one back in the day.

Then I remembered that, about 20 years ago when I purchased my Recordings (20,8,10,12,14 w/deep shells, cherry wood), a friend of mine who´s father travelled to Japan through business every time when he returned had another drum or hardware part for his son, this resulting in a complete 22,10,12,13,14,16 w/matching snare as a black kit in standard sizes. This must have been after they stopped production and his father got it from stock. In Germany they weren´t available anymore at that time.

So we had the chance to compare our kits by setting them up near each other and I remember getting jealous about his kit. Well, I was young :) and liked the look of natural wood surface better than black...

To sum up I can say that you won´t get anything comparable to early GAs IMHO, especially black ones.

Yamaha had some kind of "reissue" of "Recording Series" with the frippery "YESS" tom mount, but I´m not sure if they were still made in Japan.

If I had the chance I´d go and try to negotiate them.

Just my :2Cents:

Thanks for the input. Yes, it's the only set of RC's in standard sizes I've ever seen. It's just a shame they are so scratched. It means a minimum of $400 in spraying cost. I will keep in touch with him about it, for sure.

OK. I've made an offer. I don't even know why. Except some part of me actually enjoys restorations I suppose. So the standard sizes are rare? I must be crazy. At least I have company here . . Help2

Recording Standards are rare because they were only available for a few years, 2-3 years. These have the natural wood interiors and hoops finished in wraps. These are the only differences between these and Recording Customs. They sound great though. I just picked up a 24 RS kick and sounds great with those rounded edges.

Keep us updated if you get those and post a pic or two.

The Standards are the sleepers. I've gigged mine for close to 30 years now and they were a rental kit before that. Now some of the fittings are starting to go south. The tom mount on the Kick went last year and it turns out it's not the same as the majority that are out there.

'81 Standards. First year long lug in Silky Brown.