Hello, I came across this 5.5 x 14 Tama Swingstar shell and it is a pretty big mystery to me.

Most Tama Swingstar shells either have a single center bead (similar to Ludwig supraphonics) or more commonly, two separated groups of shallow beads.

This Swingstar has 4 center beads, similar to many CB700's, and also similar to many of the other made in Taiwan stamped out generic shells of the 80's/90's.

Looking through the Tama catalogs, the only reference I can find to this snare is in a 1993 catalog (image attached). These shells sound amazing when tuned up right with a good head selection, but they are very difficult to find (possibly because they were only around in 1993?).

I was wondering if anyone has any information on these shells.

Note the generic Pearl style lugs. This is an 8 lug drum.

Also note the strange Tama badge. This badge appears to be pretty rare as well, perhaps introduced for a short time in the early 90's.

My original hypothesis was that Tama had a shortage or something, and Tama purchased these shells from a generic shell manufacturer (Pearl stopped making shells for other companies pretty early on.. anyone have any idea who made most of the 80's generic shells?).

But I inspected this shell and compared it with a CB700 (4 center beads, same Pearl lug style), and I noticed the beads are different.

On the Tama Swingstar the beads are very flat. On the CB700 the beads are also flat, but the CB700 beads are less flat, and feel much more like a washboard than the Tama beads.

You could say that they are comparable shells, but the bead type does play a huge role in the sound of the drum, and I'm really trying to find the same shell again if possible.

Does anyone have any insight here? This Tama shell, while it appears to look like all of the other 80's/90's made in Taiwan shells, is a bit different. I'm wondering if there are any other drum manufacturers that used the same shell, or if this shell is specific to Tama.