I have been working on the Yamaha drums section. It was really weak in regards to literature. So I started adding new material.
There are 4 different catalogs with the scans for shells, finishes, snares and drum sets.
Yamaha Drum Company History and Catalogs
Let me give you some insight of how and why the main web site is organized the way it is.
1. The majority of people trying to find history have a drum and NO clue of the era. So let's say they are looking for Yamaha drums.
If I just put the catalogs up as .pdfs or downloads they would need to download every catalog to do the research. (Great for the person with all of the info already) but very time consuming.
2. So they click on Yamaha catalogs. They need to open each catalog, which is not that hard to do and then they can quickly view the catalog. Every catalog section has the option to view all catalogs or snare drums on one page.
3. The "All catalogs on one page" Puts all of the drum sets at your fingertips drilling down from the oldest to the newest that I have in place.
My estimation is that there are probably 300 catalogs scanned this way in different sections.
I probably have and can do another 300 and really complete a lot of the history. So, as I see a weak section I try and improve it.
I can probably put another 20 catalogs just in Yamaha!
That is it in a nutshell. Also, I rarely scan a complete catalog unless it is older and rare. Some are 40 - 60 pages or more and I need to stay focused on the snares, sets, finishes and badges which help people the most.
David