really nice! I love that wrap and as you know, I'm a big fan of these Yammies. Nice job on the restoration.

Those are sweet! Great job! BowingBowing

hey FayRay... you used to own a kit in this color, correct? I think this is your tom. Early version of the lug and decal badge. Do you know the name of this color?

To throw something else out there... found a photo of the same color kit, metal hooped 6 lug bass drum, natural interior and looks like re-rings... which suggests C Series.... but with tail light lugs? I thought the re-ring kits were in the early years... or is that an optical illusion, possibly the back hoop? (Ive seen re rings on C Series Golden Dragons) and thought the tail light lugs came out later. Anyway...always something to figure out with these kits. [Edit: now that I look at it closely, the tom leg behind the drum suggests that it is the back hoop]

Oh and as a side note: Did notice (after studying many photos and discussing with a fellow Y badger here) that all the Y Badge bass drums with metal hoops and rail mounts seem to have mounting bolts on the BOTTOM of the rail. The wood hoop bass drums (D Series) have the mounting bolts on the TOP of the rail. Yamaha seemed to be perpetually changing tom mounts till they settled in with the hex system mounting in 1976. Yamaha even states on their history page that shell mounting had been different for every series and model up till that time. Makes it crazy for us.

Yes, the use of different lugs, BD tom mounts etc seem to have been a bit random at times. I had a kit like the one above but it had the earlier lugs. I think this colour came out after the thunder colours, probably early 70s. Your kit looks more red than orange in the photos which is known as red ripple. The orange isn't on the chart but I assume it's orange ripple.

One thing that i noticed between the orange kit i restored and the red thunder one I still own was the quality. The later orange C series kit was not as neatly finished as the earlier red thunder kit. I reckon the early C kits were made with a lot of care for an entry level kit but the quality on the cheaper ones dropped away over time. The tom mount on the later orange one worked well though. My YD series kit is very nicely made.

Both of my C kits had no re-rings so shells were random too by the looks of it.

I still have that orphan tom btw.

FayRay... Love the curved floor tom legs and cymbal mount on those. Here is a photo I found online of the same C Series kit in Red. Early (dagger style imprint) lugs, decal badge, 6 lug metal hoop kick... and those cool FT legs. Check out the hi-hat legs... yamaha?

Those orange drums look like a time seasoned gold 200 series color. They weren't called ripples back then. Just the color - red, blue, gold, silver.

Excellent... the lost colors! Thanks RogerSling. I have also seen kits in the Silver before with the early lug.... now I know where they come from. Was this catalog dated by any chance? Thanks again for the helpful info.

Anytime.

The timeframe for these kits was fairly brief. They are among the earliest Yamaha before the "new" Yamaha of the mid 70s when Birch entered the picture. These were only offered in the YD-200 and YD-600 series. The 600 series had the Willow wraps during this phase (along with a few other offerings). I believe this was before the Dragon wraps. The floor legs were quite odd during this phase, as was the tom mount and cymbal arm. Quite odd, indeed! I have not seen another Yamaha cat with all three of these oddities on a kit. These are my favorite of the early Yamaha offerings. So strange and so very unusual.

As most of us are aware, by the mid 70s, they had mastered the hardware and drums with the ever-popular YD-9000 series. I would trade a kit in a heartbeat for a seriously clean YD-9000 in Real Wood finish. Those are absolutely beautiful.

Thanks RogerSling, that's great to know. I was looking at the catalog page here http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/catalogs/yamaha/yamaha4.jpg for the colour.

Interesting that you reckon these kits pre-date the dragon kits. Having had both I assumed the orange kit was later due to the bd tom mount not being a rail and the cymbal arm being a really useable item unlike the rattly old L arm on the thunder model. But it's the quality of build on the thunder kit that makes me think it's earlier. It's like it was their early foray into drums and despite being an entry model it's probably the nicest finish quality of any kit i own whereas the orange kit (also an entry level kit) had a scruffy finish. I just figured the attention to finish dropped to keep the price down.

Nashdrums - that red kit you posted was sold here in NZ. I remember as the guy wanted $900 for it and it sat for a long time. My orange one sold quickly and for good $$. It was exactly like the catalog pic above - original bd pedal, HH stand etc, and they all worked.