Because they were cheap junk....

Jim said all that needs to be said.

If you mean the zola-coat on the inside, it's just a coating. The drum shells are real wood. Pearl had a similar coating referred to as Accousticoat. As well as fiberglass lining on the President and W/F lines.

The only non-real wood drums I ever came across were Premier's APKs in the 80s or perhaps early 90s. The outer plies were MDF. Still had real wood inner plies though.

I think the biggest issue here, at least to me, is that I'm not quite sure what line of Tama drums you are referring to. Can you be a bit more specific?

-Mark

Well... Slingerland did make cardboard drums there toward the end..

And I owned some...the hardware,which was all normal Slingerland parts,went to jccabinets. The shells were burned to eliminate the evidence. They were NOT like Acousticon shells. They were like sonic tubes. Oh,the shame of it all...

The early 70s and 80s Tama drums . I would guess . LOL Heck some are the old Pearl's are the same way. Not made out of real wood

Yeah, I'm confused by the question. I don't recall any non-metal Tama line in the 70's or 80's that weren't made of 'real' wood. Birch, maple, cordia high end kits, snares up to rosewood. Imperialstars, Swingstars, Royalstars were usually philippine mahogany (luan), but it's real wood. Just not the best real wood. Fibrestars of course fiberglass.

Some drum shells are made out of press wood and particle board .. And that is what I called is not real wood . Wood piece are glued together and press together .