Does it have a tom mount or is it virgin?

I don't know what the R stands for (mine have RA) but they ARE nice drums! I have 2 of them on a kit I bought in 1983. Awesome kick drums...

Pic of one of mine... Bought em new.

Hello,

Based on my experience and research I would like to share some insight on this topic.

R= Recording

A= Artist

The RA's (1981-1983) were the first lacquered colored drums, like the piano black, cherrywood, hot red etc.

The other (a bit cheaper) option were the GA series that had wraps with the exception of Real Wood. Same plies and hardware the only difference is these were wrapped and had natural wood hoops.

Up until this point the RA drums had black interiors w/black rounded bearing edges while the GA series had natural interiors with natural bearing edges

In 1984 Yamaha discontinued the RA/GA's and went with the RC (standard jazz models) and RF (Power Sizes) for rock/fusion. These can be identified by the natural cut 45 degree bearing edges.

Good info joao3208. All the shell interiors on my kit are black with rounded bearing edges. Didn't know they changed the angle of the bearing edges in 84.

As far as the letter designations, "R" for Recording makes sense. Do you know what "A" for Artist represents, what that means? Just curious.

Thanks for the info!

I read this on another forum sometime ago that A represented Artist' which denoted lacquered finished drums instead of wrap. My guess is that lacquer finishes became so popular they adopted the finish to the high-end drums and kept wraps on the low-mid priced sets.

Any more pics of your monstrous RA kit?