Yamaha YD9000 Concert Tom Set - Page 1

I just bought this 1982 Yamaha 9000 Series concert tom set. It was in very good condition but needed a lot of cleaning. 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 concert toms, 18' floor and 14x22 bass drum. The model of drums was confirmed for me by Robert at Yamaha Drums USA based on serial numbers and model numbers indicated on the badges.

I disassembled each drum and cleaned the lugs, mounts and tension rods with a water/Dawn dish soap solution in my ultrasonic cleaner (cheapo from Harbor Freight). The device never worked well for me until I used Dawn in the solution. Now it's brilliant!

Since the drums have a cortex-like finish (I don't know what Yamaha calls it), I used Nu Finish car wax to clean and shine them. Nu Finish does a good job, although I had to scrub some of the dirtier bits quite a lot to get them clean. But worth it!

For the rims, I used Flitz polish. There was minimal rust. Not bad for a 40 year old set of drums.

The snare that came with the set is a vintage Tama Granstar 6 1/5 x 14, chrome-wrapped birch wood snare. It is missing one of the original lugs and has a pdp lug in it's place. The hole spacing was off ever-so slightly, so they elongated a hole to make it happen. Coulda been worse.

I originally planned to modify some of the drums to two-headed drums, but I'll wait and see. They are fun to play as is, kind of like achieving my high school dream of owning a Ludwig Octa-Plus set. I don't expect to gig it as is, but maybe if something comes up I can take out a five or six piece.

One problem with the set is the "double tom holders." They have triangular heads on them made of pot metal or aluminum. Each one of the tightening nuts has been pulled through the original metal casing and therefore holds very poorly. I ordered three new ones at about $60 each. Is this pull-through problem common to older Yamaha sets, or was my set owned by The Incredible Hulk?

First of all, congratulations on scoring a very cool vintage Yamaha kit. They don't come around that often. And they look great after all of your work on them.

The tom holders on your kit are quite a bit newer than what would have come with it in 1982. They look like they are probably from the 90's or 2000's. And the pull out problem you pictured is not common to any era Yamaha drums. The previous owner must have believed in overtightening everything so it couldn't possibly move. If you bought them from the original owner, he probably destroyed the original holders too which is why it came with replacements. I also don't see any memory locks on the tom arms which could also be why everything was overtightened. Memory locks come standard from Yamaha for toms.

The Granstar snare is a nice addition. It probably dates from the later 80's. Too bad about the lug, but from what I've heard they can be prone to breaking at higher tunings. It should be an all birch shell.