Yes, I misspoke ... mistyped. Actually, the cat I hold has the C Series (i.e. the Dragon and Thunder wraps) with rails. Even the YD Series in that cat has a rail. I stated that in reverse. My bad.

What I was trying to state was that this was a small window in the evolution enroute the 'thousand' series drums. The Willow and Dragon and Pine and Ripple and Thunder wraps were all from the same period. The very cool 200 Series colors (red, blue, gold, silver) were only available for a short time on the lower end kits ... and yet they are loved by those who are lucky enough to have clean examples. I believe these represent the last of the 'groovy' wraps produced by Yamaha before the 'thousand' series kicked in and all finishes went plain and tame.

Hey RogerSling, I imagine the Nippon Gakki Y badges with script logo were the earliest badges.... I saw a snare drum once with this badge a long time ago.

Then I was confused when I saw the catalog pages with kits that had script logo bass drums.... another piece to put in the timeline!

I agree, the lower line C series kits had the coolest colors... and set up correctly they really can sound great too. I placed some of those "air pocket" floor tom rubber feet by Gibraltar on the FT legs, and got the rack tom off the spade mount and loosely into a stand... and now the toms really sing. I play my kits out all the time... drummers always asking if its a new wrap and is it really a Yamaha. Always a conversation starter.

Thanks again for your insight and helpful catalog pages.

Those 200 Series kits are my favorites of the early Yamaha drums. Don't care what quality or level Yamaha put them at. They are so very odd and so very cool.

This is a good thread.. Learning about my 'new' drums.Cool1