Hello!
I have a Tama superstar set made in Japan. I'm pretty sure it's from the 80's. I would really like to know a little bit about it, and what you think the price for the set is.
I have attached some pictures, i'm sorry for the poor quality !!
Tama superstar:
22” bass drum
14” snare
8” tom
10” tom
12" tom
14" tom
16” tom
Are you the original owner ? The reason i ask is because i see that there are several possibilities as to the origins of your kit.. Either a custom order for the original owner,(you ?) or a set that had concert toms with later added lugs to the bottoms, or add-on orphaned concert toms with added lugs to the bottoms added to expand the kit..
The reason i suspect this, is because Tama never made drums with offset lugs, at least i've never seen such drums in any Tama catalog, or in person.. But custom orders were not uncommon for most drum manufacturers back then, so it could be possible that it is a custom..However a custom order for lugs to be added to concert toms wouldn't make any sense, because if the owner were to custom his kit directly through a Tama customer order, he would only have to get toms with bottom lugs that were already available in those sizes..
Whatever the case, you certainly have a unique vintage Tama kit..Are you sure your kit is from the 80's ? Tama began manufacturing Superstars in 1978..
Follow the link from vintage drum guide to see for yourself..
As to the value of your kit, i can only speculate that there may be Tama collectors willing to pay decent money for a kit like yours, although i wouldn't put it passed the $800-$1000 range, maybe a little more.. I'm not a Tama expert, but i did own a 3 piece original set of superstars that i sold for $500 about 12 years ago.. You would have to ask someone who's much more familiar
with vintage Tama value.. Hope this helps you out ;)
You can typically look at the badges and get a date if it is in fact from 1982 or later. Judging by the tom mounting arm, I would agree that it is not a 70's drum set.
If you have the matching snare, that can be worth $3-400 by itself. These drums, although wonderful sounding and magnificently built, do not hold much value. I have a similar kit (sans the snare) on local Craigslist for $650 and have not even had a sniff. Similar drum sets on Ebay go for around $7-800 without the snare. Assuming that it is all original, you are probably looking around $1000 with the snare.
For what it's worth, that "Spartan" range of hardware was from around from 1977 though to around 1981.. Serial number may help with dating the kit.... the later badges actually included the build year...
Cheers
John
I agree with 'human71' in that I don't think that Superstars were ever built with offset lugs. And by the height difference of the tom mounts, I would have to think those two small toms were 'made' after the fact.
The only thing I can add is that by 1985 Tama was using the big T badges so if it an 80's kit, it would have to be early 80's. I am not familiar with that series of hardware. The red label Titan stands were standard with Superstars by 1985.
Good luck,
Bryan
P.S. I was doing some research on this, and I found out that the rectangular badges were original only on concert toms, while the double sided drums wore the big T. So if that is correct, your drums with the rectangular badge were concert toms when they were born.
from the looks of it, the bass, floor, and one tom are original
the other three are amateur hack jobs
lucky to get $400
Superstars actually came out in 1976. Do they have reinforcing rings? It would make it a 76-79 if it does. They went to 6 ply/9mm some time in '79
Are you the original owner ? The reason i ask is because i see that there are several possibilities as to the origins of your kit.. Either a custom order for the original owner,(you ?) or a set that had concert toms with later added lugs to the bottoms, or add-on orphaned concert toms with added lugs to the bottoms added to expand the kit..The reason i suspect this, is because Tama never made drums with offset lugs, at least i've never seen such drums in any Tama catalog, or in person.. But custom orders were not uncommon for most drum manufacturers back then, so it could be possible that it is a custom..However a custom order for lugs to be added to concert toms wouldn't make any sense, because if the owner were to custom his kit directly through a Tama customer order, he would only have to get toms with bottom lugs that were already available in those sizes..Whatever the case, you certainly have a unique vintage Tama kit..Are you sure your kit is from the 80's ? Tama began manufacturing Superstars in 1978..Follow the link from vintage drum guide to see for yourself..As to the value of your kit, i can only speculate that there may be Tama collectors willing to pay decent money for a kit like yours, although i wouldn't put it passed the $800-$1000 range, maybe a little more.. I'm not a Tama expert, but i did own a 3 piece original set of superstars that i sold for $500 about 12 years ago.. You would have to ask someone who's much more familiarwith vintage Tama value.. Hope this helps you out ;)
Just a point of information,Tama began manufacturing superstars in 76,which were the 9500 series.Those drums were 4 ply 6mm shells with re rings.Yoor drums look like the 9600 series ,which were 6 ply 9mm shells with no rerings.The 8"and 10 " toms look loke altred concert toms and lacked the depth necessarry to mount the lugs in the conventional up an down manner,so they had to be off set,so essentually,they are now "fast sizes".It IS possible that thay came from the factory that way IF they have the typical "flying T" badge,and not the rectangular concert tom badges.That color is called natural maple.........but....there is NO,repeat NO maple in that shell.Supes are 100% Japanese birch.Great drums.Played by Billy Cobham and Elvin Jones,to name a few.
Steve B
